Freaky Foxes
by Quill of Molliemon
Summary: AU, crossover/fusion, follows "Forest of Death". Naruto heads home to celebrate his birthday, but...what is going on in town, whatis out in the woods, and - most importantly - who will make it to his party? Read, review, and enjoy!
1. Part I

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or Pokémon. If I did, I'd have a lot of money…but I don't. So don't bother suing, you won't get anything out of it.

**Notes:** (Crossover, could be a crack!fic if you want) Here there be Naruto characters and Pokémon monsters! This is a _short story_ which follows "Forest of Death".

I hope that you enjoy it!

* * *

**Freaky Foxes**

_Part I_

Naruto grinned as the forest opened up to reveal the "front gates" of Konoha Town. It was a traditional _Torii_ gate placed over the only road in and out of the small town with a banner-style sign at the top that said "Welcome to Konoha Town" and it was decorated with swirly symbols. And…now that he really looked at the patterns, they reminded him of his latest badge: the Leaf Badge.

_Weird,_ he thought, studying the badge pinned to the inside of his jacket (well, his father's jacket; since it stopped smelling like mothballs he tended to forget that fact). _What a weird coincidence…_

Shrugging that observation aside, Naruto adjusted the straps of his backpack on his shoulders and marched through the symbolic gateway with his vibrava and drifloon flying after him.

"So this is the town where I live," he told them as he walked and they floated. "What do you think?"

Both Sandy and Drifter made approving sounds and studied their surroundings with great interest. Naruto was thoroughly pleased that they liked his hometown. But as they drew nearer to the center of town, he couldn't help but frown.

Konoha Town was a small, sleepy place. But at noon, in the middle of town, there should be a few people around running errands, visiting the café, or just loitering around with nothing to do. No matter where he looked though, he didn't see a soul.

"…This is really weird," Naruto muttered as he turned onto the street that would lead to his house out by Lake End. "Where the heck is everybody?" Feeling rather creeped out by the ghost-town atmosphere, he turned to his pokémon for help. "Sandy, Drifter, go up high and see if you can see any people in town."

The purple balloon and tan dragonfly immediately started circling higher and higher, soon rising above the roofs of the nearby buildings. Naruto craned his neck and kept walking to keep them in sight. This was a mistake as he didn't see the tripwire until it caught his ankle.

"Waah!"

He barely avoided skinning his chin when he crashed into the concrete sidewalk. And then a heavy net fell on top of him, half-blinding him. When he tried to get up and shrug it off, it only seemed to get tangled on him.

_What the—?!_

"We got him!" a little boy's voice cried in excitement.

"Really?" a little girl squeaked.

"Huh, really?" another boy, who sounded like he had some really bad allergies, asked in a stuffy voice.

Naruto froze in his struggles as he placed the voices. "…Konohamaru?"

"Ah!" Konohamaru yelped. "It talks!"

"Konohamaru…" Naruto growled. "You and your friends better let me out of this net… What the heck are you doing setting traps in town anyway?"

"…Naruto?" Konohamaru squeaked in disbelief.

"Yeah, who else?" Naruto snorted, trying to peek through the holes in the net at the younger boy and his companions. "And how do you get out of this thing?!"

After a lot of awkward tugging—and feeling like he'd been turned into a pretzel at least twice—Naruto finally managed to get free of the net trap. Konohamaru sheepishly grinned and tugged at his long green scarf while Naruto glowered at him. Konohamaru's two little friends—Moegi and Udon—tried to edge out of the scene and pretend that they had nothing to do with the net mess.

The little trio didn't look too much different from the last time that he'd seen them. They were about a year older—making them ten instead of nine. The three of them seemed to have adopted goggles (cheap swim goggles, not the high-quality heavy-duty goggles he sported) in an attempt to model themselves after him, their sempai. Well, that was certainly Konohamaru's motivation; his two friends just did it to copy the young Sarutobi.

What was really different about them was their pokémon. When Naruto had left town on his journey, only Konohamaru had a pokémon of his own—an aipom he'd named "Monkey"—that his grandfather had given him as a birthday present. Now in addition to the aipom, Konohamaru also seemed to have a curly-tailed rattata at his command. The red-haired girl, Moegi, had a little taillow perched on her shoulder. And Udon, the sniffly boy with glasses, had a buck-toothed bidoof in his company.

"So, you guys all have pokémon now?" Naruto asked.

"Uh-huh," Udon nodded, digging around in his pocket for a tissue.

"Konohamaru-kun and Monkey helped us get them," Moegi added, stroking the top of her taillow's head.

The professor's grandson puffed out his chest proudly, his aipom mimicking him on top of his head. "Yeah! Pretty cool, huh?"

Naruto flashed the kid a thumbs-up, but then frowned. "You still haven't answered my question. What are you guys doing setting traps in town?"

"Wild pokémon," Konohamaru gravely informed him.

"Yeah!" Moegi nodded. "Bunches of wild pokémon have been raiding town!"

"Nobody wants to go outside if they don't have to," Udon sniffed. "The town had to cancel the weekend markets because they'd invade the square and ruin all the fresh produce."

"Whoa, really?" Naruto scratched at his yellow spikes of hair in puzzlement. "When did this start happening?"

"About a month ago," Moegi answered.

"It was really weird," Konohamaru said. "A few wild pokémon wander into town every now and then, but out of nowhere whole packs of them starting appearing and causing trouble. Grandpa's been really busy trying to figure out why and how to fix it."

Naruto mentally chewed over all of this new information for a moment. "So…you guys are setting traps in town to try and catch marauding wild pokémon?"

"Yep," Konohamaru nodded. "That's exactly it!"

"Hmm…" Naruto hummed thoughtfully. _I wonder why Mom never mentioned this the last few times that I called her…_

"So, Naruto-sempai," Konohamaru spoke up, "could you help us reset this trap—"

"Look!" Udon yelped. "Pokémon!"

"Where?!" Moegi squeaked. "Where?!"

Naruto glanced up and saw Sandy and Drifter coming back down to him. "Oh, those are mine."

"Those are your pokémon?!" Konohamaru choked. "…Can we see them?"

"Of course," Naruto grinned as the drifloon and vibrava flew in behind him. "This is Sandy my vibrava, and Drifter my drifloon," he informed them, gesturing to each monster as he introduced it.

"Cool!" Moegi squealed, her eyes sparkling in delight.

"Yeah," Udon nodded in awe.

Konohamaru and his two pokémon eyed up the competition, trying not to look too jealous. "How many badges do you have now, Boss?"

"This many," Naruto grinned smugly, flashing the inside of his jacket where he pinned his badge collection.

"Wow!" Moegi cried.

"You have six?!" Udon blinked, adjusting his large glasses.

"Yep," Naruto beamed.

"Huh," Konohamaru sniffed. "I bet I'll get more badges faster than you did!"

"Maybe," the Uzumaki boy shrugged. "You already have more pokémon than I did at your age."

Young ego soothed, Konohamaru grinned proudly at that fact. "Yeah, you're right! I do…"

"Konohamaru-sama!"

The Sarutobi boy cringed. "Oh no…he found us."

"Konohamaru-sama!" Ebisu cried, jogging down one of the deserted streets. "There you are!"

Ebisu was one of Professor Sarutobi's lab assistants…and a real weirdo. He always wore dark pants and a pristine white lab coat. And then he'd try and be cool by wearing a dark bandanna over his hair and round shades over his eyes. Much to Konohamaru's dismay, the up-tight lab assistant was usually the one sent after him when his grandfather couldn't leave the lab for whatever reason.

"Hey Ebisu," Konohamaru greeted unenthusiastically.

"You and your friends should not be out here!" Ebisu scolded. "Your grandfather wants you home right away."

Konohamaru scowled. "So what?"

"It is not wise to linger outdoors in this current situation," Ebisu lectured them. "Please return home immediately, all of you."

"No way!" Konohamaru protested. "I want to stay out here and help. I have pokémon of my own; I'll be just fine!"

"You are still one year away from being licensed," Ebisu frowned disapprovingly. "And you only possess two low-level pokémon. It is too dangerous for you to try and face down a pack of multiple wild pokémon, and it is irresponsible of you to draw your friends in as well."

"We can handle it!" Konohamaru insisted. "And Naruto-sempai is here! He's got lots of badges, and pokémon, too!"

The shade-wearing lab assistant finally took note of Naruto's presence and grimaced distastefully. Ebisu always had disapproved of Naruto. He saw the blond boy as a trouble-maker and a bad influence on impressionable youngsters like his boss's grandson, Konohamaru.

"…Regardless of your company, your grandfather wants you home _now_, Konohamaru-sama," Ebisu insisted, adjusting his shades.

Konohamaru stubbornly crossed his arms over his chest. "But—"

"Hey, Ebisu! Have you—oh, you found him."

Naruto looked to his left and grinned at who he saw coming across the street.

"Hey, Iruka!"

Iruka was a trainer born in Konoha Town who had returned for good a few years before Naruto had first gotten his probationary license. He split his time between working at Professor Sarutobi's lab and teaching the special trainer courses in the town's school. He was Naruto's favorite teacher by far, and he thought of the older trainer almost as a kindred spirit. Early in Iruka's training career he'd run into an aggressive wild sandslash that had left him with a permanent horizontal scar over the bridge of his nose.

"Naruto?" Iruka paused at the sight of him, and then smiled warmly. "Hey! Your mom said that you'd be coming back to town. How are you?"

"I'm great!" Naruto grinned foxily and gestured to his pokémon, which had turned their attention from Konohamaru and friends, to Ebisu, and now to Iruka. "Do you like my pokémon?"

"Wow, a vibrava?" Iruka said in awe as he studied Sandy. "You can't find these in the Land of Fire, and…a drifloon?"

"I got Sandy in the Land of Wind," Naruto cheerfully boasted. "And I picked up Drifter in the Forest of Death. Cool, right?"

"Very," Iruka nodded, and then leaned in to whisper. _"You know that drifloon is a ghost pokémon, right?"_

"Yeah, I know," Naruto shrugged. "So what?"

Iruka grinned and shook his head. "Oh, never mind. Your mom's still at the lab, do you want to follow us up that way?"

"No." Naruto tugged at the straps of his backpack. "I want to head home and drop off my stuff first, and then—"

The sound of shattering glass echoed down the street, interrupting their conversation.

Naruto frowned. "What the—?"

"Oh no," Iruka sighed. "Not again!"

"Konohamaru-sama, Moegi-san, Udon-san, go home now!" Ebisu ordered.

Without waiting for the younger children to protest again, Iruka and Ebisu sprinted towards where it sounded like the breaking glass was. Konohamaru started to follow anyway, but Naruto reluctantly stopped him.

"You should probably go home," the Uzumaki sighed. "You don't want to get grounded do you?"

"But—!"

"I'll tell you what I find out later, okay?" Naruto promised.

"…Fine," Konohamaru pouted. "C'mon guys, let's go to my house."

As the professor's grandson and his friends turned and left, Naruto rushed after Iruka and Ebisu. Sandy glided along at his shoulder, looking determined to be of help however she could. Drifter trailed after them, squeaking a bit out of nerves.

Two blocks away and around a corner, they came upon a trashed candy store. The big front window had been shattered and several shelves of candy had been destroyed. Whatever had caused the damage was already gone, but Iruka and Ebisu were still there with their empoleon and blastoise ready for action. The poor elderly candy shop owner looked about ready to cry.

"Oh, this is the third time this month!" he moaned. "I can't just keep replacing this window!"

"Do not worry, Mori-san," Ebisu advised him. "Professor Sarutobi is working to uncover the root cause of this destructive behavior so that it can be corrected."

The old shop owner only sighed and went about trying to clean up the mess.

Naruto went over to Iruka while his two pokémon studied the shards of broken glass scattered over the sidewalk with interest.

"What did this?"

"Vulpix," Iruka answered, patting his empoleon's wing-like arm. "A pack of wild vulpix."

"Eh?!" Naruto blinked. "Really?"

Iruka nodded. "A little over a month ago they started raiding the market in the town square and stealing produce and food from restaurants. When the market was canceled and people stopped eating outside, they started breaking inside under the cover of night to steal food. Sometimes they even do it in broad daylight."

"…Why?" Naruto wondered.

"The professor hasn't figured it out yet," Iruka sighed. "It's strange. No other kinds of pokémon are causing this kind of trouble, and vulpix tend to be on the shy side—preferring the more wild areas away from people than civilized places. It just doesn't make sense…"

Naruto had to nod in agreement. "Well…I need to get home."

"Alright," Iruka said. "I'll see you around."

Naruto waved goodbye and then coaxed Sandy and Drifter away from the intriguing bits of broken glass.

"C'mon guys, it's time to see my house!"


	2. Part II

**Freaky Foxes**

_Part II_

Demon trotted alongside Whisker Face through yet another warren of stone paths and artificially constructed human dens. It was strange being without the bell around his neck. As much as he'd hated it—especially in the beginning—the stupid thing had grown on him and now he missed the sweet sound it had made with every step he took.

However, there was a bigger issue than the loss of his bell pressing on his mind. Human settlements held no interest for him. They were all the same: smelly, confusing, and full of human beings. All that really varied was how big or small they were. But _this_ particular human community…

_This is where Whisker Face lives. _The golden-furred vulpix hesitated for a moment and glanced in the direction of the lake where the blond boy lived. _And that means that I'm close to that place where I was hatched, and where __**I**__ lived…before._

Snorting, Demon turned back to follow Whisker Face—

—And caught sight of shadowy movement in a narrow space between two buildings.

_Hmm?_ He sniffed the air and caught the scent of something…familiar. _But that's…_

Without thinking, Demon bolted for the alley, vaulting over some discarded cardboard boxes in his rush to get to the shadowy things that he'd glimpsed and smelled.

_:You!:_ he barked, fur bristling. _:What are you doing here?!:_

A trio of vulpix flinched at his unexpected appearance. One had a notched ear, one had a nasty scar on its foreleg, and one was actually missing one of its six tails. But all three possessed the usual coloring of the species—something that Demon most certainly did not.

_:…So, Ugly __**is**__ still alive,:_ Notch-Ear sneered, the first to recover from the surprise.

_:And here we thought that we were free of your curse,:_ Five-Tails huffed.

_:Why did you have to come back?:_ Scar-Leg complained. _:It was so much better with you gone.:_

_ :Shut up!:_ Demon snarled. _:Now why are you here?! The Mothers always taught us to never go near human dens!:_

_ :So what are __**you**__ doing here?:_ Notch-Ear retorted.

_:Yeah!:_ Scar-Leg agreed. _:Didn't you leave swearing that you'd uncover the secret of evolving into a higher state?:_

Five-Tails made a big show of looking Demon over. _:Huh, you're still a vulpix…and you're still ugly, Ugly.:_

Demon bared his teeth and arched his back threateningly. _:Why you—:_

"There you are!" Whisker Face sighed, stumbling into the dimly lit alley. "I thought we were past the whole running away…thing…" The human paused and took in the sight of the three other vulpix. "…Old friends of yours?"

_:Human!:_ Scar-Leg hissed.

_:Run!:_ Notch-Ear barked, darted away down the narrow alley.

Scar-Leg followed, but Five-Tails lingered for just a moment, flashing Demon a scornful look.

_:You're always bad luck, Ugly.:_

And then he was gone, too.

"Oops…must've scared them off…sorry," Whisker Face chuckled weakly. "Hmm…I wonder if they were some of the pokémon that have been causing trouble." The human boy scratched at his hair. "Could only three vulpix break that window and ruin all that candy?"

Demon paid no attention to whatever Whisker Face was rambling on about.

_…Why did I have to be the one born cursed?_

* * *

There were some days that Hiruzen Sarutobi not only felt his age, but felt _twice_ his age. The elderly professor sighed tiredly and tapped the ashes from the bowl of his pipe and tossed aside his latest edition of his favorite research journal. Normally taking a look at what other researchers were investigating was a good way to clear his head and get refocused on his own work…but not today.

Not for the last few weeks, in fact.

He was honored that Itachi had chosen to come to him for help. But at this point there was really not much to do. The young Uchiha had mailed him a packet of information as he'd said he would in his call, but…it was only profiles, there were no solid plans for the future, no clear goals beyond acquiring a few monsters of myth.

There was no way to act on anything at this time. There was no concrete proof, no photographs, no copied credible documents—all he had received where photocopies of notes that Itachi had written by his own hand. To do anything to such respected gym leaders there had to be some damning evidence and so far there wasn't any yet.

_What a dangerous group this is…so secretive that not even their own members know what their ultimate goal is beyond some vague promise of truly uniting the world. And to think that their commanders are mostly gym leaders…from Wind Country, Earth Country, Water Country, Waterfall Country, and Fire Country… And Orochimaru and Team Sound…_

He'd had a long career as the League Champion for Fire Country, and around the mid-point he'd stumbled across three youths while traveling incognito—a girl of privledge, an illegitimate country boy, and an ambitious inner-city orphan. Their companionship had been unusual and their potential was great. He'd looked in on them from time to time when his sometimes hectic schedules had permitted it. He'd almost thought of them as his own children (in addition to his own _real_ children) at times, and had been proud to watch them grow up and all become well-respected gym leaders.

With a sigh, Hiruzen forcibly turned his thoughts away from the betrayal of his favorite protégé. Re-stuffing his pipe, he left the privacy of his small office and headed to his laboratory. There was no point in tormenting himself over the "Akatsuki" business when he had far more pressing domestic issues.

Roughly a month back the trouble had started with wild vulpix raiding the town for food. It hadn't been too big of a problem at first—just a few raids. But the little fire foxes had quickly escalated, appearing almost every day.

Initially, the solution had seemed simple. Every weekend (and sometimes on Wednesdays) at noon there would be a sort of farmer's market in the town square where fresh fruits, vegetables, and sometimes fish and other meats would be sold in little stands. It would be a great temptation for hungry wild pokémon, so he had advised that the market be canceled until the vulpix realized that there was no easy food to be found in Konoha Town.

In response, the vulpix turned to raiding restaurants and grocery stores. They would steal the food off plates at the outdoor tables at the local cafés, startling patrons and ruining their meals. And they would take advantage of doors propped open at food marts to steal whatever fresh food they could find.

In turn, the professor had told such establishments to keep anything edible behind closed doors. So the restaurants kept their customers indoors or gave them take-out, and the grocery stores stopped propping their doors open for patron convenience. …Which led the vulpix to breaking windows to get to what they were after, sometimes even in broad daylight.

_Are they really so desperate for food? It doesn't seem likely, as only vulpix are the ones attacking. If there was some shortage of natural food in the area I would expect to see other local species following the lead of the vulpix. There hasn't been any significant shift in the climate, so what could be the root cause of this aberrant behavior? No living thing ever does anything without having some sort of reason—_

"Damn it! I'm not paying you a hundred bucks!"

The old man paused as he stepped into his workroom and slowly turned to see Kushina Uzumaki, one of his part-time assistants, using one of the video phones in the corner to place a call. He doubted that the red-head was talking to her son; she wouldn't speak that way to Naruto. So who was she calling?

Puffing on his pipe, he slowly approached her and the phone.

_"Oh ho ho, a bet is a bet!"_ a familiar voice cackled over the connection. _"You lost, now pay up!"_

_…Tsunade?_

"Well, I don't have a hundred bucks laying around to give you!" Kushina snapped back.

_"You could borrow some,"_ Tsunade cheerfully suggested. _"I know Minato has a lot of money that he does nothing with."_

Now the normally unflappable red-head was flushing in embarrassment. "There is no way that I'm asking him to pay this bet off for me!"

_"Want to make a bet on that?"_ the blonde woman chuckled.

"No!" Kushina barked, looking even pinker in the face.

"What sort of bet are we discussing?" the professor inquired curiously.

The Uzumaki woman flinched and guiltily peered over her shoulder at him. "Oh…hi professor! I was just…I'll get back to digitizing your notes from that last project. Bye!"

And then she was hurrying out of the room, leaving the phone on and connected.

Intrigued, Professor Sarutobi settled himself in front of the abandoned phone and nodded politely to the woman on the screen. "Good afternoon, Tsunade. How are you?"

_"Oh…hello,"_ Tsunade grimaced. _"What are you doing there?"_

"This is my lab," Sarutobi replied. "Why wouldn't I be here?"

_"Your lab?"_ she repeated slowly. _"So…she works for you? For how long?!"_

"Yes, she works for me part-time, and has for years now," he answered and puffed on his pipe.

Tsunade's expression darkened. _"And you never told anyone that she was there with you?! Surely Minato has asked you if you've seen her at least once!"_

The professor sighed deeply, fingering his pipe. "I would've told young Minato about her had she not specifically asked me not to give out her information. She wished to start over fresh so—not knowing the circumstances of her life before—I had no basis to judge her request." He sighed. "At that time I had no reason not to agree to what she wanted."

Now Tsunade glared. _"So you just let her hide in your backyard?"_

"I've always advised her against what she was doing; I never really approved of her approach on starting over." He took another drag on his tobacco. "She never listens."

Tsunade opened her mouth to make some biting remark, but something off-screen and just out of audio pick-up range distracted her. _"…I'll be right there, Shizune!"_ she called out somewhere to the left. _"Ugh, so many challengers, so little time…"_

"You're taking challenges again?" Sarutobi asked with some surprise.

_"Yeah,"_ she sighed. _"A little blond punk with funny scars went charging head-long into The Forest even though he's scared spit-less of ghosts and stuck it out…and that got to me. An eleven-year-old made me look like a coward, and I don't like that. So—like him—I'm doing something about it."_

The old professor had to smile. "I'm glad to hear that, Tsunade."

The woman gym leader rolled her eyes. _"Well, I've got to be going now."_

And then the screen went black.

_A "blond punk with funny scars"?_ Hiruzen mused, watching the smoke lazily rise from his pipe. _What an interesting description… _

A muffled commotion from another part of his sprawling laboratory caught his attention and he stiffly abandoned the seat in front of the phone to investigate.

_I wonder…_

* * *

Naruto was so distracted by the brief and odd encounter with the wild vulpix that he actually collided with Ebisu when he entered Professor Sarutobi's lab. The stiff lab assistant dropped a case of computer disks and a few small binders in the collision and they hit the tile floor with a noisy clatter. Naruto bent down to help gather the things, but Ebisu waved him off in annoyance.

"No, no, you've done enough."

"Oh come on," Naruto scowled. "It's not like I broke anything!" _…At least not this time._

"Let's not tempt fate, then," Ebisu sniffed, adjusting his shades (like many Aburame, he never seemed to take them off, even when indoors). And then he noticed Demon peering around Naruto's leg. "A vulpix?! You've captured one of those marauders?!"

"No," Naruto replied with a frown. "I've had Demon for a while. I left town with him. …Where were you when I got my license anyway?"

"It was my day off," Ebisu answered, and briefly removed his dark shades to get a good look at Demon. "…Did you _dye_ that poor thing?!"

The blond boy rolled his eyes. "No, of course not! Why would I do that?"

"You were quite infamous in school for attention-seeking behavior," Ebisu muttered. "Surely you would continue such behavior out of school as well."

Naruto glared. "No way! I've got more important stuff to do than goof off!"

Ebisu didn't look the least bit convinced.

"Hey, would you stop looking at me like I'm some kind of punk loser?!" the boy demanded.

Ebisu simply put his shades back on and went back to gathering his dropped things with a weary sigh.

"Hey!" Naruto fumed, balling his hands into fists. "You—"

"Oh, hello Naruto."

Naruto looked past Ebisu to see Professor Sarutobi coming down the hall with his pipe in his mouth.

"Hi, Professor," Naruto grinned and waved.

"Professor," Ebisu nodded to his superior and then swept off to some archive room with his armload of stuff.

The boy glared at the retreating back of Ebisu's pristine white lab coat. "Hey, Old Man, why'd you have to hire him? He's such a jerk."

"I did not hire him for his social skills," the elderly professor sighed. "He earned his place at my lab due to his great intelligence, diligence, interest in pokémon science, and work ethic."

Naruto wrinkled his nose. "Whatever, he's still a creep…"

Professor Sarutobi shook his head. "So, how was your journey back?"

"Kinda boring," Naruto shrugged, and pulled Drifter's pokéball from his belt. "Could I swap this for Shadow?"

"Of course," the old man smiled, taking the ball from his hand. "Your mother is in the Computer Room, if you were curious."

"Thanks!" Naruto grinned, and took off down another hallway.

He'd never hung out in the professor's lab much as a young child. He ran around too much and tended to crash into things and break things like test tubes and specimen jars. Ebisu really took offense to that, and referred to Naruto as "a tauros in a china shop" all the time. But he knew the place well enough to make it to the tiny, out-of-the-way computer room where his mother was working in less than a minute.

His mother sat in the dimly-lit computer room near one of the five computer terminals. It looked like she was taking the professor's hand-written notes from some experiment or research project and putting them in a digital document. And it looked like she was having a hard time deciphering the notes.

"…I hate it when he invents some new short-hand…thing," she muttered darkly.

Naruto skidded to a halt in the doorway, and then tip-toed up behind her. "…Hi, Mom!"

"Gah!" she jumped and spun around her swivel chair to face him. "Oh, you little booger!" Once she caught her breath, she hugged him. "Welcome home."

The boy happily hugged her back. "Did you miss me?"

"Oh, definitely," she answered seriously and moved back to look into his face. "So, five days until your birthday. Are you excited?"

"Mm-hm," he nodded. "Hey, Mom…" _…Do you think he'll come?_

"Yes?"

Naruto scratched nervously at the back of his head. "How come you never said anything about the wild vulpix?"

"You're here for your birthday, not to worry about crazy wild pokémon," she replied. "And I was hoping that the problem would be solved by now…"

"Oh." Naruto leaned against the table. "So, what's the professor going to do to figure it out?"

"He's been talking about sending Iruka and maybe Ebisu out into the forest to try and find where these vulpix live and gather data about their environment."

Naruto thought that over for a moment before an idea struck him. "Hey, do you think Demon could help? He's a vulpix that came from around here."

"That's a very good idea, Naruto," the professor remarked as he appeared in the doorway. "Here's your pokémon," he added, tossing Shadow's pokéball to the boy.

"Thanks," Naruto grinned, and turned to the golden vulpix who was sitting on the floor. "Hey Demon, do you think you could show us where the local vulpix live?"

The little fire fox eyed him before glumly turning away in refusal.

"No?" Naruto pouted. "Why not?"

"Maybe those wild vulpix are old friends of his," his mother suggested. "He might not want to give away their home to humans."

Naruto rubbed a scarred cheek. "Oh…"

"Don't worry about it," his mother smiled. "I have about an hour's worth of work left to do, and then we can go home."

"Okay," the boy nodded. "I'll just hang out with Konohamaru until then. See ya!"

Waving to the two adults, Naruto scooped up Demon from the floor and jogged off in search of the professor's grandson. He'd promised the kid details on what he'd seen at the wrecked candy store, and he'd keep it. And wherever Konohamaru was lurking was probably more interesting than the sterile lab, full of incomprehensible equipment and fragile test tubes.

The vulpix in his arms was unusually quiet. In fact, Demon had been rather subdued ever since the brief encounter with the wild vulpix in town. It really made Naruto wonder what they might've talked about to make the little gold fox so…pensive.

_I really wish I could understand pokémon…_

* * *

Demon stared out over the glassy lake near Whisker Face's home den. The lakeshore was gravelly with a few much larger rocks here and there. The vulpix perched on one such large stone and did his best to ignore the others.

_:Wheeee~!:_ Sandy squealed, skimming over the surface of the lake, occasionally dipping a thin black limb into the water as she flew.

_:I like this lake!:_ Typhoon growled as he popped his head above the surface of the water.

_:It is a good lake,:_ another gyarados—a white-whiskered female allied with Whisker Face's mother—heartily agreed. _:Come, I will show you more.:_

_:Okay!:_ Typhoon eagerly gurgled, and the two water serpents disappeared from view again to explore the depths of the lake.

_:There's so much water…:_ Bolt mumbled anxiously.

_:Yeah, so?:_ Gamakichi replied carelessly.

_:…I don't like it,:_ the pikachu decided.

_:Why?:_ Shadow asked, lounging in the sunlight. _:I think it's pretty.:_

_:It's more than pretty,:_ the vaporeon, Uzu-chan, declared. _:It's great! I swim in it every single day.:_

_:Ugh,:_ Bolt shuddered.

Demon rolled his eyes and glance dismissively over his shoulder at the pokémon laying in the grass behind him. _:What, just because you almost drowned as a little baby pichu you hate water now?:_

Shadow the umbreon blinked. _:Oh? You almost drowned? When?:_

_:The day that I first met Naruto-kun,:_ Bolt replied, fidgeting with his lightning-bolt tail. _:I was reaching for a berry by a fast-flowing stream and slipped into the water. It was cold and wet and awful! But then Naruto-kun came and fished me out. He saved my life!:_

Demon snorted and glared down at his ugly paws. _I wonder…would I have made it if he hadn't found me?_

_:That's cool,:_ Gamakichi grinned and clapped.

_:Wow,:_ Shadow breathed.

_:You're very lucky,:_ Uzu-chan remarked.

_:Yeah, sure, it's great and all,:_ Demon grumbled. _:But it's stupid that you're still afraid of the water. It's not like you're weak against it like I am. You could learn to swim if you wanted to.:_

_:No thanks,:_ Bolt sniffed. _:No swimming for me.:_

_ :Then you'll just drown the next time you end up in deep water,:_ Demon shrugged. _:How sad…:_

Bolt stomped his little foot and angry sparks dance on his red cheeks. _:You! …Why do you always have to be such a jerk?!:_

_ :You wouldn't understand,:_ Demon grumbled, hopping off his rock seat and trudging towards Whisker Face's home.

_:Why don't you try telling us about it first before deciding that.:_ Shadow suggested.

The vulpix paused and gave the pikachu, croagunk, umbreon, and vaporeon a scathing glare.

_:You wouldn't understand; you're not a __**freak**__ like me.:_

And then he slipped into the house and found a couch to hide under.

After being on the road so long, it was easy to forget how things had been. But coming back here there was no way to avoid remembering. He was the ugly one, the freak, the living curse.

_It's just not fair…_


	3. Part III

**Freaky Foxes**

_Part III_

Minato was glad that he'd kept the information print-out from Naruto's pokédex when it was broken. And he was even gladder that he'd thought to look at the wrinkled paper recently. Otherwise he would've completely missed Naruto's birthday.

After observing Naruto's gym challenge in Senju City, he'd had to leave. There were a few interviews with magazines and newsgroups that he'd needed to do, and two public appearances where he'd had to give out a lot of autographs that he'd had to attend. When he'd finished with all that mess, he'd been ready to take his apartment phone off the hook and just relax in private until some other obligation came up that he needed to deal with.

But the sudden significance of the upcoming tenth of October changed things.

He would have to call Kushina and find out what sort of plans—if any—that there were. With Naruto out on the road being a traveling pokémon trainer, it was likely that the boy would just call home on his birthday, and perhaps stay in a town long enough to have something shipped to him. If Minato wanted to get in on anything birthday-related, he'd have to visit Kushina's home in Konoha Town…and that suited him just fine.

However, before he could reach his phone, his door intercom buzzed for attention.

"Yes?"

_"Hey man, let me in will ya?"_

Minato frowned slightly. "Genma?"

_"Who else? Buzz me in; it's chilly out here."_

Sighing, he did as his agent requested and gave him entry to the building, and several minutes later there was a knock on his door.

"So what is it?" Minato asked as he let Genma inside.

"What a warm greeting," Genma sighed, lazily chewing on his ever-present tooth pick. "I thought we were friends."

Genma Shiranui was something of a lifesaver. He signed Minato up for various charity events, public appearances, interviews, and kept track of the champion's schedule and title obligations. This freed Minato up to disappear whenever he wasn't working and not have to worry.

And as a bonus, Genma was very easy to get along with. The man was very laid-back and cool under pressure (like when an emergency came up and Minato was out in the middle of nowhere and rather unreachable). He wasn't really a trainer himself as Zang his zangoose was the only monster to his name, but he was very smart and well-aware of all sorts of trainers, not just the famous ones.

"I was about to make an important phone call," Minato replied apologetically.

"Are you booking jobs without me now?" Genma asked.

"No, not that sort of important call," the champion snorted. "So…to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

Genma squinted suspiciously at him. "What sort of important call?"

"Personal," Minato answered.

"…Fine, fine; on to business." Genma reached inside his sport jacket and pulled out some folded papers. "I know you just did some interviews and a couple of autograph sessions, but there's one event left before you can run off into the mountains and hide again for a few weeks."

"Really?" Minato asked with a slight wince. _Shoot…_

"Yeah, a short little charity event," Genma nodded, double-checking to see if he had all the necessary papers. "Something different…should be quick…maybe even fun."

Minato hesitantly accepted the papers and skimmed through the information…

"A _fishing_ competition?!"

"Yeah, it looked fun." Genma paused. "…You _do_ know how to fish, right?"

"Yes," Minato muttered, "it's just not a skill I've really used much…"

"So why do you sound upset?" The agent briefly studied his tooth pick and—deciding that it didn't need replacing yet—put it back between his teeth. "Do fishing events get put on the 'no way' list?"

Minato studied the date of the fishing competition and bit the inside of his cheek. "No, just…put October tenth on your little 'always make sure this date is free' list…or whatever you call it."

"…Okay." The agent pulled out a little notebook and scribbled in it. "October tenth is now an official day off for next year and off into eternity. …Are you going to back out of the fishing thing?"

It was tempting—very tempting—but… "No, it's for charity…I should be able to make it work. Now shoo! I need to make my phone call."

"What, are you going to call a girlfriend?" Genma chuckled.

"Yeah, now go off and do paperwork, or whatever it is you do when I don't see you," Minato replied, shoving him towards the door.

"Wait, really?" Genma blinked, trying to dig in his heels.

"Mm-hm, now out!" the blond man commanded and firmly shut the door behind his agent.

When he was sure that Genma was gone, he slunk over to his favorite armchair and collapsed into it to study the paperwork a little more closely.

_It's scheduled for the ninth…and it's not too far from Konoha Town. If I leave right after it ends and ride Ryuu, I should make it._ He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. _Well, this changes the call a bit._

_ …I hope she doesn't laugh._

* * *

Kushina struggled mightily to contain her laughter as she clutched the video phone mounted on her kitchen wall.

"You…you willingly signed up…for a _fishing contest_?!" She tried to swallow her giggles, but that only made her snort. "I thought that you thought fishing was boring!"

_"It is,"_ Minato replied, giving her an annoyed look through the video screen. _"And I didn't sign up for it; my agent signed me up for it."_

She took a moment to get her breathing back under control. "You…you have an agent?"

_"Just to manage my schedule,"_ he answered. _"It's a headache enough to do some of the things that I'm contractually obligated to do, it's worse to try and sort through all the hundreds of requests I get and decide which ones to take and which ones to refuse."_

"…I suppose," she shrugged. "That sounds pretty annoying. Makes me grateful for my anonymity." The red-head grinned. "Are you jealous?"

_"Sometimes,"_ he chuckled weakly.

Kushina sighed and rubbed a bit at her eyes. "So…you'll be fishing on Naruto's birthday."

_"No, it's the day before,"_ he corrected her. _"It's not too far from Konoha Town; I'm just not sure how long it will take."_

"Oh." She leaned in a bit closer to the video pick-up. "So you'll try and get here for the tenth? That's great, I think Naruto will like that. Worst case scenario: I'll stall him until you get here."

_"Stall him?"_ Minato repeated, puzzled. _"You mean…he's home?"_

"Yep," Kushina nodded. "Unlike me who never did anything with the family for my birthday, and you who celebrated your birthdays over the phone, Naruto decided he wanted to come home and hang out for a while. So do hurry over when you can, I can't promise how long the cake will last."

He laughed a little. _"Alright, I will."_

"Good." She was about to say good-bye so that she could get to cooking dinner, when a thought struck her. "I have to warn you before you get here, though…"

_"Oh?"_

"The town seems to have developed a problem with wild vulpix," she informed him. "Naruto was rather irked that I never got around to warning him about that so I figured I'd give you a heads-up on that."

_"Really?"_ He raised an eyebrow, intrigued. _"Tell me more…"_

* * *

The moon shone in the clear night sky, casting strange shadows through gaps in the trees as Demon ran.

_What am I doing?_

He'd laid under the table while Whisker Face and his mother ate their dinner and listened to them as they talked about all the terrible things that wild vulpix had been doing in town. Uzu-chan the vaporeon had been there too, and asked him why his old comrades would do such things. Demon hadn't answered, not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't know.

From his earliest days as a newly-hatched one-tailed pup he'd been taught to never approach a human or go near human dens for any reason. So he had no idea why he'd seen those three skulking around town or why the others were breaking windows and stealing. And that bothered him…a lot.

When Whisker Face had gone to sleep, Demon had sat awake on the human's bed for what felt like forever. Tormented by this looming question of why and the moonlight streaming in through the window, he gave up on sleeping. Without thinking much on it, he slipped from Whisker Face's room, out of the pokémon flap door in the back, and out into the woods.

But now that he was close to his old home, he was having doubts.

_They don't want me around. They never wanted me. They'll be mad that I've come back…_

Things hadn't been bad at first. When he'd first hatched, the adults hadn't been too concerned by his odd coat color. They just thought that it would darken as his tail slowly split into six and by the time he was mature his pelt would be normal. But with each month and each new tail, his strange golden fur color stayed the same, and his tails never darkened to the right color either.

Around the same time, a lot of bad things happened. The day he had hatched, there was a terrible rainstorm that caused a flash flood on the hillside where his colony was located and several un-hatched eggs were washed away and destroyed. The day his second tail split had off from his first, he'd snuck out of his den and his father had broken his leg after catching it on a twisted root when chasing after him. His next tail had seemed to bring a plague of mosquitoes and biting flies. His fourth tail had brought a raid from a nomadic pack of poochyena. His fifth tail had seemed to coincide with a strange blotting of the sun that lasted several minutes and frightened everyone for days. And on the day of his final tail and his ascension into maturity he'd been trying to play with some of his age mates when a starving staraptor tried to steal one away, but only succeeded in ripping his tail off, leaving his peer with five and giving Five-Tails his name.

Soon the other vulpix started to think that he was cursed; that he was bad luck. They stayed away from him, fearing that the curse that had bleached his fur golden and orange would rub off on them. And by the time he had lived through every season to reach one year of age, he was lonely, angry, and fed up, so he'd run away (and that seemed to draw the curse on him directly as he was harassed by a swarm of zubats, fell into a deep mud puddle, got stuck under a raised tree root, rained on, and then found by a human).

There were whispers that there was a special form that vulpix could attain; a larger form with three more tails and yellow fur. Some monsters seemed able to change form with age and skill, but how a vulpix could ascend to a new shape was a mystery. To become a ninetales was what Demon wanted more than anything else. When he evolved his fur would finally be the right color, and his curse would be broken.

_…But I still don't know the secret,_ he thought glumly as he paused to check his bearings. _I don't know if I need to gain a certain level of strength and skill like Typhoon and Sandy. I don't know if I need to find some special strength from loving Whisker Face like Bolt and Shadow. I don't know if there's anything else I can do to evolve._

Despite his doubts, Demon reluctantly started moving again. He'd come so far already, he might as well go all the way. They'd be unhappy that he was back, but he's stay and bother them until he found out what was going on.

As he trotted along the trail that would lead him to the hillside cluster of dens where he had been born, a dark shape emerged from the bushes and blocked his way. He almost thought it was one of the other vulpix on a night guard patrol, but it was too big and the silhouette wasn't quite right. A single glowing red eye stared at him, making his hackles rise.

_:Who are you?!:_

The dark figure didn't answer him; it just kept staring with one red eye.

_:If you don't get out of my way, I'll set you on fire!:_

The red eye seemed to glow brighter and everything around it started to warp and seem to spin. Time felt like it was slowing down. Demon felt like he was started to float, and his brain started to feel fuzzy.

_:Go to sleep little one,:_ a dark, silky voice commanded. _:Go to sleep.:_

And then, quite against his will, Demon obeyed.

* * *

Naruto walked into town, anxious and on edge. When he'd woken up that morning with Demon nowhere to be found, he'd been ready to run right out into the forest and look for him. But his mother had stopped him.

She'd made him dress and eat breakfast, and then made him promise to not go out alone. Even with a team of well-trained monsters for protection, it could be tricky and dangerous when large groups of wild pokémon were involved and she wanted him to be with at least one other person. She would've gone with him if she didn't already have an appointment to meet with Kiba's mother, who had just returned from some trip, to consult with her about the wild vulpix for the professor.

Iruka was his first (and really only) choice for help. Ebisu was a jerk, and Konohamaru and his friends were too young. With the professor's lab closed on Sundays, he had to go into town to locate the older trainer.

This detour into town bothered him. Every moment he spent not looking for Demon, the vulpix could be getting further and further away, or somehow be in danger. He didn't want to waste any time, but he'd promised his mother…

Naruto paused by the police booth, a small shack where police officers could be found, and wracked his brains to try and remember Iruka's address. He'd been to the older trainer's home a before, but only a few and not recently. He knew it was a small blue house, but he couldn't remember on what street.

_I should've checked his address before I left,_ Naruto thought, mentally kicking himself. _Stupid! …Maybe, I should call home and check? I don't want to walk all the way back home to look at the address book…_

"Hey, you lost?" a man asked, startling him.

"How can anybody be lost?" a second man snorted. "Only tourists get lost, and we don't get any tourists."

Naruto peered over his shoulder at two young police officers, and did a double-take.

"They let you guys become cops?!"

"Well, yes," Izumo shrugged, brushing his bangs away from his right eye (only to have the hair fall right back into place). "Konoha Town's police force, small as it is, is aging and needs new young blood."

"Yeah," Kotetsu grinned lazily, ruffling his long spiky hair. "They're kinda desperate so it was easy to get accepted."

Naruto didn't know Kotetsu and Izumo all that well, but it seemed odd that they would become policemen. They were around Iruka's age and had tried being pokémon trainers, but the nomadic lifestyle apparently hadn't suited them and they'd returned to town barely six months after leaving. The pair had gone back to school and then bounced around town on odd jobs and seasonal work. Neither seemed particularly motivated and it just really seemed weird that they'd be getting into jobs that were supposed to be permanent.

"Oh." Naruto was about to walk off, but thought of something. "Hey, do you know what street Iruka Umino's house is on?"

"He lives at the end of Market Street," Izumo answered.

"If you're looking for him, he's not there," Kotetsu added.

"What?!" Naruto yelped. "How do you know?"

"We saw him heading for the bus stop outside town," Kotetsu explained. "He probably wanted to go shopping somewhere where he didn't have to worry about fox pokémon showing up and causing chaos."

Naruto felt like yelling in frustration. "Great…"

"You need him for something?" Izumo asked while his partner stretched and yawned.

Naruto's shoulders sagged. "One of my pokémon went missing and my mom made me promise to take another trainer with to go looking for him. I was going to ask Iruka to help me…"

"You can't go by yourself?" Kotetsu frowned slightly.

"I can," Naruto insisted. "I have a bunch of great pokémon! But I promised that I wouldn't…"

Izumo looked thoughtful for a minute before snapping his fingers. "We could help you."

Naruto blinked. "Really?"

"Of course," Izumo grinned. "Our job is to protect and serve, so we can help protect you from wild pokémon and serve you by locating your lost pokémon."

"I know nothing's happening around here, but…really?" Kotetsu muttered, far less enthusiastic than his partner.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to," Izumo retorted.

Kotetsu wavered, and then sighed in defeat. "Nah, I'll come…" He turned to Naruto. "What are we looking for?"

"A vulpix," the boy answered.

Both rookie police officers stared at him.

"A vulpix?" Izumo repeated.

"Do you think it ran off to join all the troublemakers?" Kotetsu wondered to no one in particular.

Naruto firmly shook his head. "I don't think he'd do that. And if he has, it'll be easy to tell; Demon is very noticeable."

"Let's get started then," Izumo smiled and brought out a growlithe. "Show us where your vulpix was last seen and Growler should be able to use _odor sleuth_ to track him down."

The blond boy nodded and started to take them back towards his house.

"Show off," Kotetsu muttered, glancing down at Izumo's growlithe with a hint of jealousy.

"If you'd remembered to get your application in on time, you'd have a growlithe too," Izumo answered calmly.

"Application?" Naruto asked.

"To get a growlithe through the police department, you need to fill out some paperwork and get it in by the deadline," Izumo explained. "Kotetsu missed the deadline and now he has to wait six months to try and file the paperwork again."

"I hate red tape," Kotetsu grunted. "And it's not like I _need_ a growlithe. I still have Dusk and Plusi."

Naruto tilted his head. "Who?"

"Just because we didn't make it as trainers didn't mean we gave up our pokémon," Kotetsu snorted. "Dusk is a—"

The sound of breaking glass and a scream just ahead and around a corner interrupted them.

"Huh?" Naruto blinked, turning towards the sound. _Breaking glass? Is it—_

"Damn. Come on Growler," Izumo ordered and ran towards the commotion.

"Not again," Kotetsu muttered and he followed his partner.

Naruto hesitated a second more before running after the two of them.

This time it was a bakery. The big window was broken, just like the candy store from the previous day. And this time Naruto arrived in time to see the culprits in action.

Fifteen vulpix (maybe more, with so many bodies and so very many tails so close together, it was hard to count them all) were crowded in the front of the bakery, trying to steal things. The candy store had been easy to rob; all the candy was in bags that were easy to carry off. But the bakery with filled with cakes, loose pastries, and breads—it was too big and bulky to be easily carried off by four-legged vulpix.

"Growler, scatter them with_ roar_," Izumo instructed.

The growlithe sucked in a deep breath—

One of the attacking vulpix noticed Growler and used _roar_ first, startling the fire dog so badly that he immediately retreated to his pokéball to hide.

"Crap," Izumo swore.

Inside the bakery shop, the girl behind the counter who had screamed was cowering behind the register. One of the bakers had come out from the back and tried to scare the little fire foxes off by waving his rolling pin, but a few vulpix easily held him at bay by spitting _ember_s around his feet. Assaulted from both sides, the pack of wild pokémon redoubled their efforts in trying to find a way to carry off as much food as possible as quickly as possible.

Not wanting to further ruin the shop by soaking it, Naruto passed over using Typhoon, who would be most effective against the fire pokémon, and chose a pokémon whose attacks could be more contained. "Bolt, use _thunder shock_ to drive them away!"

His pikachu immediately loosed little lightning bolts that shocked and stung the rampaging foxes, and a few bolted.

"Good idea," Kotetsu remarked and brought out one of his own pokéballs. "Plusi, use _swift_!"

Plusi turned out to be plusle—a pokémon that bore a resemblance to a pikachu. The yellow and red creature spat little yellow star shapes from its mouth that homed in on its target like heat-seeking missiles. The painful attack immediately sent whichever vulpix it hit running for the woods.

"Mini, use _swift_, too!" Izumo ordered as he summoned Mini the minun, the yellow and blue counterpart pokémon to plusle.

With repeated _thunder shock_s and _swift_s the vulpix pack quickly dispersed, probably leaving with far less food than they'd wanted. But the aftermath was the same as with the candy store. There was broken glass inside and outside of the store, there were paw prints in some of the cakes, and dozens and dozens of baked goods were ruined.

"I really hate this," Izumo muttered as he put his minun away. "They always pick a different place so we can't lay traps for them, and they strike so fast—"

"One's still here!" the counter girl squeaked in fright, urgently pointing into a corner of the shop. "It's there, it's there! It's got a glazed doughnut!"

"I got it," Kotetsu claimed and hopped through the shattered window with his plusle. They disappeared from view around a bread rack to deal with the hidden vulpix. "Plusi, give it a _thunder wave_!" There was a crackle of electricity, and then a tense quiet.

The baker and the counter girl leaned forward as they watched, but Naruto and Izumo couldn't see a thing from outside.

"What's he doing?" Naruto asked.

"No clue," Izumo muttered. "Kotetsu, what the heck are you doing?" he called to his friend.

"Taking care of it," Kotetsu answered, reappearing with his plusle sitting on his shoulder and a pokéball in his hand.

"Did you…catch it?" Izumo blinked.

"Yeah," his friend grinned lazily. He paused at the counter and put down some money. "For the doughnut." The girl started to open the register to make change, but he waved her off. "Keep the change. I think you're going to need it."

"Why catch it?" Izumo asked when Kotetsu rejoined them outside.

"Why not?" Kotetsu shrugged. "This way I won't have to apply for a growlithe. The difference between foxes and dogs isn't that big, right? And who knows, maybe it'll be helpful in stopping these raids."

"Maybe…" Izumo dubiously agreed, and turned to Naruto. "Did you see your vulpix here?"

"No," Naruto answered, shaking his head. "Demon wasn't here."

"Okay then," Izumo muttered as Kotetsu put his plusle away. "So the search is still on."

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, scooping Bolt up into his arms. _Demon, where have you gone…?_


	4. Part IV

**Freaky Foxes**

_Part IV_

When Demon finally clawed his way out of the dark pit of sleep that he'd been sucked into, he found himself in an earthen den. Underneath him was a nest of dried grasses, clumps of shed fur, and seed fluff. It was roomier than the den he'd been hatched in, but otherwise very similar to what he was used to. The sunlight of full day streamed in through the entrance—

_ Sunlight?!_ Demon scrambled to his feet and darted out into the open. _It's daytime already?!_

_:So, you finally awake.:_

Demon flinched and turned to the right—

He was magnificent; a great creamy-gold beast sitting regally in profile with many long, silky tails, tipped in orange. The grand fox was nearly double Demon's size with an eye as red as a ruby. He turned to face Demon directly—

_:What happened to your eye?!:_ Demon blurted out in shock.

While the pale yellow fox's left eye was untouched, his right eye was destroyed; sealed shut by an enormous, irregular scar that ran from the long tuft of fur on the top of his head down to the right corner of his mouth.

_:A terrible battle, long ago,:_ the great fox answered calmly, in that same dark and silky voice from before.

_:You…put me to sleep?:_ Demon took a step back warily. _:How? Why?:_

_ :My father was a glameow, and he passed the power of __**hypnosis **__on to me. And as for why…it was late, and you were agitated,:_ the one-eyed fox replied. _:A good night's sleep is one of the best ways to clear the mind.:_

Demon narrowed his golden-brown eyes. _:Who are you?:_

_:The vulpix around here have taken to calling me Guardian, and I quite like that,:_ the fox answered, languidly rising to a sitting position that better displayed every one of his beautiful nine tails.

_:You're…a ninetales?:_

The scarred creature seemed to smile at him. _:Yes, I am a ninetales.:_

_:How—:_

_ :What is __**he**__ doing here?!:_

Demon jumped and looked over his shoulder to see Notch-Ear, Scar-Leg, Five-Tails, and a few others clustered around the edge of the den he'd emerged from.

_:What happened to leaving and never coming back?:_ Scar-Leg sneered.

_:Yeah!:_ Bent-Ear barked. _:Couldn't you have just stayed away and tormented some other creatures with your curse?:_

_ :Curse?:_ the ninetales snorted. _:You think this little one is cursed? Why?:_

Demon cringed as the cluster of vulpix eagerly called out every single unfortunate thing that had been attributed to him.

_:That is no proof of a curse,:_ the ninetales snorted after listening to them all. _:If he had been born the same color as all the others in that year, those bad things would still happen and then what would you blame?:_

None of them could find an answer to that.

_:But…why is he such a weird color?: _Notch-Ear sputtered.

_:Some pokémon are simply born special,:_ the ninetales answered. _:I have lived a long time and been to many places and seen many things. I once saw a gyarados that was red instead of blue, a caterpie who was gold instead of green, and a charizard who was black instead of orange. Sometimes pokémon are simply born different, and there is absolutely nothing wrong or cursed about them.:_

Demon pricked his ears so far forward that they hurt and every muscle in his little body tensed. _There…is nothing wrong with me? I…I'm not a cursed freak?_

_:…Really?:_ Scar-Leg muttered dubiously.

_:Ugly isn't bad luck?:_ Dark-Paws said disbelievingly.

_:Really,:_ the ninetales nodded gravely. _:The only thing that sets him apart from the rest of you is the color of his fur. He suffers no curse. There is no bad luck attached to him. If anything, he is very special, and should be treasured.:_

_:…I still wouldn't mate with him,:_ Rosy-Pelt snorted.

_:Treasure him?:_ Five-Tails scoffed. _:No way.:_

_:He's worthless,:_ Bright-Eyes sniffed. _:He disappeared months ago! Why should he be welcomed back now?:_

_ :Yes, he left!:_ Notch-Ear barked. _:Why is he back now?:_ The vulpix boldly stalked right up to Demon's nose and stared at him. _:Perhaps you were captured by a human and now you're here as a spy!:_

The hope that Demon had felt at perhaps not being a feared freak, which had crumbled some at the continued rejection, now shattered into nerves at this accusation. _:I'm no spy! No human told me to come here. And even if one had, what would I tell them? Humans are too stupid to understand anything we say!:_

Notch-Ear sniffed at him and grimaced. _:Liar! You stink of human! You're their servant now!:_

Demon recoiled. _:I'm not a spy!:_

_ :Enough!:_ the ninetales barked. _:It does not matter whether or not he is a spy; as the young Golden-One has said, he cannot simply tell the humans what he has seen and learned here. But, little Golden-One, just because humans cannot understand the things we say does not make them stupid.:_ The one-eyed fox's remaining orb started to blaze. _:They are clever and cunning and they have strange subtle powers. They find ways to make you __**love**__ them, to make you __**want**__ to do things for them. They suck you in so completely that they day they tire of you and cast you aside it can destroy you.:_

_…Whisker Face…tire of me?_ Demon flattened his ears, unable to imagine that, yet very disturbed by the idea.

_:Let's drive him out!:_ Five-Tails growled. _:If humans are so powerful, Ugly will never be free of them!:_

_:No,:_ the ninetales replied. _:I was once deep under the thrall of humans' power. It took me years and to be passed between many humans' hands before I finally saw the truth of things.:_ He tilted his good eye down on Demon. _:You are special, Golden-One, and I wish to help set you free.:_

_ :Free?:_ Demon looked down at the dirt and dead leaves under his paws. _Shouldn't that sound…good?_

_:Yes, free,:_ the ninetales nodded. _:No more confinement, no more commands, no more human rules, and the openness of the wilds and company of your own kind.:_

Demon mulled that over. _Okay…that does sound kind of good…_

Sometimes he didn't like sitting inside that ball; it was boring and he couldn't see anything, he could only listen. In the beginning he'd hated being ordered around and although he'd gotten used to it now, at times it still grated on him. And worrying about whether he could pee someplace or what he could or couldn't chew on was just stupid.

Although…the "company of his own kind" had never been that enjoyable in his experience. He barely remembered the nicer times when the adults simply thought he'd outgrow his odd color and there was no talk of curses. And with the "openness of the wilds" came other wild pokémon competing for food, bad weather, and the sameness of the surroundings…

_:Guardian!:_ a voice cried out from down-slope. _:Guardian! We're back!:_

_ :Ah, the foraging party has returned,:_ the ninetales smiled and sauntered down the hillside. _:Let's see what they have collected for us.:_

_Foraging party?_ Demon hesitated before slinking after the ninetales out of curiosity. _There were never "foraging parties" before…_

It had always been "find your own food" in their hillside cluster of dens. Parents would bring back food for their pups and friends would bring back food for the sick, but that was the extent of bringing food to the dens. There had never been any large-scale foraging for food to share with everyone.

Several yards down the hill, and through a few clumps of bushes, Demon came to a clearing where most of the other adult vulpix were clustered. The pile of foraged food wasn't all that impressive, but—

_:That's human food!:_ Demon yelped.

There were dinner rolls, doughnuts, breakfast pastries, a few large cookies, and one loaf of bread still in its plastic bag. It looked like all the stuff Whisker Face and his mother had been discussing was true. The wild vulpix were stealing human food from town.

_:Yes, it is,:_ the ninetales nodded. _:Humans have far more food than they need. It doesn't hurt them to take it from them.:_

Demon frowned. _That's not what I heard…_

The ninetales critically surveyed the small pile of baked goods. _:There isn't much here. Was there a problem?:_

_:Yes,:_ Straight-Tails (whose tails had never curled) replied timidly. _:Several humans with servant monsters appeared quickly and attacked us. The food in the storage den was difficult to gather and move. And…and we lost Silky-Tails. She hasn't caught up with us yet, and we traveled slowly once it was safe to do so. …She must have been captured.:_

_ :We cannot be perfectly successful every time,:_ the ninetales sighed regretfully. _:Bad things will happen from time to time. Perhaps young Silky-Tails can be saved, but we should not hold out too much hope—:_

There was a _pop_ sound, and then a solid _thump_.

_:Whoa! Where the heck am I?!:_

Demon turned to find a strange pokémon sitting beside the meager pile of baked goods. It was mostly yellow with brown shoulders, a brown chest, and a brown ring on its tail. The creature had a fox-ish face with eyes so slitted they looked closed. In one hand it clutched what appeared to be a white plastic eating utensil.

_:What sort of deformed fox are you?:_ Scar-Leg asked.

The little yellow monster turned to him. _:You have a lot of tails.:_

_:Where did you come from?:_ Notch-Ear demanded.

_:I was looking for some food in my forest when this mean old fearow tried to eat me, but I __**teleport**__ed to escape…and now I don't know where I am,:_ the creature answered. Then it seemed to notice the human food that was mere inches away. _:Hey! Is that food?:_ It picked up a dinner roll in its free hand and sniffed at it. _:Mmm! Smells goo—:_

_ :That food is not for you, Abra!:_ the ninetales barked, slapping the bread from its hand with one tail. It loomed over the small yellow abra, one red eye blazing. _:Be gone before I tear you to pieces!:_

The abra stared up at the ninetales, its head craned back so far it was nearly falling over backwards. It sat there, absolutely still, like an ice sculpture. And then it started to tremble all over.

_:You're mad,:_ it whispered in pure terror. _:You're completely mad…:_

_:Enough, you thief!:_ the ninetales snarled and lunged in with bared teeth, sinking them into the frozen abra's shoulder.

There were no rules in fights between wild pokémon; there was no restraint. The ninetales chewed into the little abra's shoulder, picked it up, and shook it some. Slamming his prey into the ground, it looked out wide-eyed and locked gazes with Demon.

_Why hasn't he run?_ Demon wondered. _If __**teleport**__ brought him here, can't he use it to run—_

_ (It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts—)_

Panic and a sense of agony poured into Demon's skull. _Damn it, run away!_

_ (—where, where, where, where—)_

Demon's brain buzzed with the foreign feelings, and all that came to mind was Whisker Face's home on the lake and the blond human boy's stupid smiling face.

_POP!_

The ninetales' jaws bit nothing but air as the abra vanished into thin air. The mighty fox snapped his jaws a few times and glanced around before barking in triumph. He licked the traces of the abra's blood from his lips like he enjoyed the taste of it.

_:No one steals our hard-earned food!:_ the ninetales declared.

The vulpix all eagerly agreed, unbothered by the aggressive display.

Demon sat by silently, relieved that the foreign presence in his head was gone just as quickly as it had appeared.

_:Should we return to the human nest and get more food?:_ Straight-Tails asked once the crowing over the abra's mauling tapered off.

The ninetales stared out towards Whisker Face's town for a minute. _:Go at night,:_ he decided. _:We need to make our raids at night for several days. That will lull the humans into a false sense of security during the day. Then it will be safe to attack during daylight hours once more…:_

_:Why steal food from humans in the daytime at all?:_ Demon asked.

_:To send the humans a message,:_ the ninetales answered. _:To show them that we are not docile creatures that they can capture and enslave. They need to be reminded that we are powerful and dangerous, and that we should not be messed with. No matter what they do, they will not defeat us. We will always take their food and there is nothing they can do about it…:_

Demon shivered a bit. _Maybe…maybe that abra was right. He's crazy…_

* * *

Naruto struggled to contain his impatience as he paced at the edge of the woods. Izumo's growlithe was trying to pick up Demon's trail leading away from his house, but Growler was young and inexperienced and he kept getting distracted by other scent trails. And the vulpix that Kotetsu had caught was no help at all.

After giving it a cheri berry for its paralysis and an oran berry to boost its health, Kotetsu had tried to recruit the vulpix—which he'd dubbed "Vixen"—to the cause of locating Demon. Vixen's reaction was just to sit there and shake. She seemed so terrified of everything that all she did was tremble and turn away from everyone who tried to talk to her.

_How can something so timid and fearful do something so bold as breaking into a bakery and stealing food?_ Naruto wondered. _Was it because it was in a group? Pokémon in packs sometimes do things that they'd never do as individuals…_

"Hey kid," Kotetsu grunted as he approached, the cringing vulpix trying to curl into a ball in his arms, and his plusle riding on his shoulder. "How long did it take you to bond with your vulpix?"

Naruto's shoulders slumped. "A long time."

"Great," Kotetsu sighed. "This is so depressing. Not even Plusi can convince her that I'm not going to skin her and tack her pretty pelt on my wall…"

The plusle tried to engage the vulpix in conversation yet again, but Vixen turned her face away and closed her eyes, like she was wishing to disappear or wake from some terrible nightmare.

"So depressing," Kotetsu mumbled as his plusle slumped in defeat.

Naruto had to agree with that sentiment. "I had a _soothe_ _bell_; that helped a bit."

"Could I borrow it?" Kotetsu asked. "They don't pay rookie police officers a lot of money."

"…It got broken," Naruto frowned.

"Damn," Kotetsu muttered. "What an unhappy day today is turning out to be. First we're posted at the police box with nothing to do all morning, then you turn up with a lost vulpix, then wild vulpix attack the bakery, then catching Vixen turns out to be a bust because she hates me, then Growler can't find the right scent trail, and now the _soothe_ _bell_ is broken. Oh woe is us!" he cried dramatically. "What unfortunate thing will happen next? Will pokémon fall from the sky?"

_POP!_

Before Naruto could fully register the odd sound, something small and very solid dropped onto his head and shoulders from above.

"Yah!"

"Huh, maybe I should've said that candy would fall from the sky instead of pokémon," Kotetsu mused. "Perhaps Vixen would be more social if I had chocolate to bribe her with. Girls always like chocolate, right?"

"Hey!" Izumo called out from over by the side of Naruto's house. "What's going on over there?"

Naruto was too busy trying to pry whatever had fallen on him off his back to bother answering. "Wah! Off, off, off!"

"Hold still," Kotetsu said, putting down his pokémon to assist.

Naruto did his best to not move, which was hard as the fact that a mystery monster that he couldn't see was clinging to him really freaked him out.

"Man, this thing is clingy," Kotetsu grumbled, and Naruto could feel a lot of tugging on the back of his jacket. "Ah ha! Got it!"

Naruto immediately spun around to see his little assailant…and it took him a minute to recognize what it was. When he'd looked at photographs of this pokémon before in school, they'd never been bloody. And they'd never had their eyes open, either. He wasn't sure which feature made it look creepier.

"An abra?" Izumo noted as he jogged over to investigate. "Huh. It's weird that it's all bloody like that. Don't they usually _teleport_ at the first hint of danger?"

"Yeah, remember how much Raidou bitched and moaned because he just couldn't catch one?" Kotetsu snorted. "He got all bent out of shape about it."

The abra stared at him with open, teary eyes, and Naruto thought he could almost hear it pleading him for help.

"What should we do with it?" Kotetsu wondered. "It's Sunday, so the professor's lab is closed…"

Konoha Town was too small to have a full pokémon center, so if a pokémon needed healing the best place to take it was Professor Sarutobi's lab. When the lab was closed, like on Sundays and holidays, the only thing to do was use medicines or berries. And thankfully his mother cultivated the berry bushes that had come with the house, and even added a few new bushes, so healing berries were always in plentiful supply. But would berries alone be enough for such a nasty bite?

Naruto carefully removed the abra from Kotetsu's hands, holding it away from him as he didn't want to get anymore blood on his jacket (there had to be some on the back of it already) and because the abra seemed intent on re-attaching itself to his torso with its claw-like fingers and toes. He carried it back to his house, but with his hands full he had trouble getting the door open. With some creative maneuvering, he managed the feat, deposited the abra on the kitchen counter, and headed for the medical supplies.

First, he went and cleaned off all the blood with sterile wipes, revealing the nasty bite mark underneath. Then, he sprayed a potent dose of _super potion_ on the wound to speed the healing and wrapped it with gauze bandages. And then, he fed it some oran and sitrus berries, and seeing how it bolted those down, he fed it some pokémon kibble too.

"Hey, can I eat this?" Kotetsu asked, holding up an apple from the fruit bowl on the kitchen table.

Naruto flinched, not having noticed the rookie cop's entrance. "Eh, sure."

Izumo had also come inside and was eying the bandaged abra curiously. "Is that abra…holding a…_spork_?"

Sure enough, there was indeed a spork clutched in the abra's left hand. It was a basic thing, made of cheap white plastic. It had probably been dropped on the ground as litter, or the abra had fished it out of a trash can.

"Kadabra and alakazam really like metal spoons," Naruto said. "So…maybe this abra wanted one too?"

"That could be it," Izumo nodded thoughtfully.

"Here," Kotetsu said to his vulpix, which he'd put on the table with his plusle, and offered it a bite of the apple he'd munched on. "Have some."

The vulpix shied away from the half-eaten fruit, although it looked hungry with the way it was licking its lips. The plusle took a bite and made a good show of how nice it tasted in order to tempt the little fire fox. But still Vixen resisted, and Kotetsu gave up and went back to eating the apple himself.

"I wonder…" Izumo muttered, still focused on the spork-wielding abra. "Could Eclipse help us figure out why this abra didn't flee and got hurt so badly?"

"Eclipse?" Naruto repeated curiously as he looked away from the timid vulpix back to the abra, whose eyes were closed now and seemed to have fallen asleep sitting up.

"Yes, my first pokémon," Izumo replied, pulling a plain pokéball from his pocket. "He's a—"

Growler's frantic barking from outside immediately caught all their attentions.

"Oh?" Izumo blinked, peering out of the kitchen window. "I think Growler's finally found the trail!"

"So we're going?" Kotetsu asked, between hurried bites of apple.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "in a minute."

The boy carefully gathered up the sleeping abra and moved it to his bed room. He left it on his bed with the window cracked in case it woke up and wanted to leave. Then he grabbed his pack and rejoined the rookie officers.

"Okay, I'm ready."

"Right," Izumo nodded, heading out to where Growler indicated the trail was. "Hurry up, Kotetsu!"

"I'm coming," Kotetsu grunted, throwing out his apple core, settling his plusle on his shoulder, and picking up his very unhappy vulpix. "I'm coming."

Naruto shut the door to his house behind him after Kotetsu exited and marched out to the woods' edge where the growlithe was yapping. Finally, after hours of being side-tracked by various things, he was on his way to finding Demon. And he didn't plan on heading home until he'd found out what was going on.

_I'm coming…_


	5. Part V

**Freaky Foxes**

_Part V_

Demon slunk through the bushes, pausing every now and then to devour some (non-medicinal) berries. He wouldn't eat the stolen food. There wasn't enough of it anyway. And if he'd tried to have some, the only way he'd get any was if the ninetales threw his weight around.

_:Be patient,:_ the ninetales had advised him before he'd sought his own lunch. _:It will take time for them to see what I see in you. You are truly special and, perhaps one day, I will share the secret of evolution with you.:_

_ :Why not tell me today?:_ Demon had wanted to know.

_:Because you are not yet ready.:_

_ :How do you know that I'm not—:_

_ :You are not yet ready.:_

And that had been the end of that.

The golden fire fox paused to examine some sweet berries, but found them not ripe enough and pushed on. It was strange to be out in the wilds again with no foolish human to follow. And it was strange to have to be wary of other species of monster.

He'd nearly made the mistake of walking through a clearing where a flock of spearow and a mated pair of fearow were feeding. Spearow and fearow were aggressive and territorial and refused to share anything with other pokémon. If he had walked among them like they were tamed creatures, they would've harassed him for a mile or more.

_I've been away too long; I've lost my edge._ Demon gnawed a few dark blue berries from a branch and licked the juices from his muzzle. _I need to be more careful. No one will save me out here…_

A rustling in a nearby bush made Demon freeze and cautiously sniff the air. When he recognized the scent as familiar, he relaxed…slightly. Demon hesitated a moment, and then crept around to the source of the rustling noise.

_:Papa?:_

The older vulpix looked more worn than the last time that Demon had seen him. His left rear leg had never healed right from being broken and now it was permanently held off the ground, unable to bear any real weight. He limped badly, which made it harder to get around and feed properly, so he was on the thin side. And his injury had changed his name from Gray-Eyes to Limper.

His sire turned slightly, glaring over his shoulder. _:…Don't you call me that! You're too old for that.:_

Demon flinched. "Limper" was a very unflattering name, just like "Ugly". And it was still a deeply ingrained habit to use "Papa".

_:…How come you aren't eating with the others?:_ Demon asked.

_:Eat human food?:_ Limper snorted derisively. _:That's nothing but trouble. Stealing that food is more bad luck than your fur.:_

_ :You don't agree with what that ninetales is doing?:_

_ :Of course not,:_ the lame vulpix growled, awkwardly trying to balance on his one good back leg to reach some berries on a higher branch. _:All the youngsters look to him as a hero, all the females lust after him because he is more evolved, and all he's done is cause trouble!:_

_ :Why not just run him off?:_ Demon asked and jumped up to pull the branch down towards the ground with his teeth.

His sire bristled at the unsolicited help, but bit a few ripe berries off the lowered branch anyway. _:The whole colony would have to want to drive him away, and only a few oldsters feel as I do. He is powerful and experienced; he's been to the far sides of the world and back. What chance do we have? The most skilled among us can barely manage performing __**confuse ray**__, and "Guardian" is capable of advanced attacks like __**hypnosis**__ and an overwhelming stream of fire that he calls __**fire blast**__.:_

Demon let go of the bush branch and sat for a moment, thinking hard. _:…Has he revealed the secret of evolution?:_

_ :No.:_ The older vulpix had trouble sitting, so he just collapsed onto his stomach and laid down. _:That was one of his big promises when he first appeared. If any of us showed any promise, he would help that one evolve into a ninetales. But so far, all he's done is turn hopeful youngsters down. I don't think he'll ever tell us how he did it.:_

Demon scowled down at his paws in deep thought.

_:Why do you ask? Are you embarrassed that you couldn't deliver on your bold pronouncement that you'd discover the secret to ascending to a new form?:_

The younger vulpix wasn't too bothered by his sire's biting tone. The elder vulpix had never really forgiven him for setting in motion the breaking of his leg. And because he'd become lame, his mate had left him, seeking a more capable male and fearing that she'd lay another bad egg if she stayed with him. If Demon had been in his sire's place he'd be bitter too. It was actually rather surprising that his sire was still speaking to him at all.

_:…I'll get rid of this ninetales,:_ Demon decided.

_:You'll what?!:_

Demon stood and trotted back to the warren of dens on the hillside. He wasn't sure how he'd manage it, but he would. This ninetales was the cause of everyone's problems, so he had to go.

_I'll see if there's anything hidden away in that big den of his, and then go from there…_

* * *

Naruto struggled to contain his impatience as he and Izumo and Kotetsu ventured deeper and deeper into the forest. Now that Growler had gotten a strong fix on the trail they were keeping a good pace, but it just didn't feel fast enough. There was no way to go any faster, though.

Kotetsu was still trying to get his newly-acquired vulpix to open up to him, with the same amount of success. Izumo kept advising his partner to give it a rest and put the fearful fox away, but Kotetsu wouldn't listen. Naruto fingered the pokéballs at his belt, but didn't release any of his creatures; with Izumo's growlithe, and Kotetsu's plusle loose, there wasn't any need for them.

"How much longer do you think?" Kotetsu sighed. "My feet are starting to hurt."

"Stop complaining," Izumo scolded. "We'll get there when we get there, and not a moment before. Say…did you leave a note at our post saying where we were going?"

"Nah," Kotetsu answered, "I thought you were going to do that."

"I got distracted by the attack on the baker's shop," Izumo shot back. "And why do I always have to be the responsible one?"

"Because—"

A high-pitched squeal of pain interrupted them, and made Growler abandon his tracking in favor of running towards the distant source of the terrible sound.

"Hey wait!" Izumo yelped and gave chase.

"Aw, man," Kotetsu sighed as he followed.

Naruto made no comment as he tore through the woods after the barking fire dog. _Please don't let Demon have anything to do with that sound…_

The ground sloped upwards as they went then dropped into a small gully-like formation which was relatively free of brush and trees. Beyond that was a large, domed-shaped hill. But the action was down in the gully formed by the two slopes.

There was a cluster of vulpix milling around a ninetales. The pale yellow ninetales looked like it was attacking something, but the surrounding red-brown vulpix obscured their view. Every time the evolved fire fox dove down at its victim there was another horrible sound of pain.

"A wild ninetales?" Kotetsu frowned.

"Maybe it was released, or abandoned," Izumo theorized.

Naruto couldn't help but shiver when he glimpsed some blood on the ninetales' muzzle. "What's it mauling?"

"I can't tell from up here," Izumo said.

Growler whined and danced around Izumo's feet, disturbed by what he could see, hear, and smell. Plusi, still seated on Kotetsu's shoulder, covered his little eyes with his red paws, unable to watch. Vixen actually seemed intrigued by the scene, leaning forward in Kotetsu's arms and pricking her ears to listen.

It was never a good idea to interfere in the business of wild pokémon, but Naruto just couldn't stand to sit by and do nothing. "Bolt, Gamakichi, break that fight up!"

The bluish-purple croagunk and the yellow pikachu exploded from their spherical confinements and raced from the brush-covered ridge and down the slope to where the ninetales seemed to torment something for the audience of vulpix. With a few quick jabs and zaps of electricity, the cluster of vulpix scattered. That gave the hidden human audience a clear view of the victim—

Naruto scrambled down the slope before either Izumo or Kotetsu could stop him. "Stop it, Ninetales, stop it!"

Demon looked chewed up. There were bleeding bite marks all over his back, his ears looked torn, and the ninetales was currently gnawing on one of his back legs. Demon kept kicking at the ninetales' face, but the larger fox didn't stop its slow, deliberate, and clearly painful bites.

Gamakichi lunged towards the ninetales, his first glowing purple with poison. The ninetales' one eye (now that he was closer to it, Naruto could see the ugly scar where its right eye should've been) seemed to flash blue and the fighting toad went flying backwards before he even reached his target. Bolt gathered electricity to his cheeks to launch his own assault, but the yellow mouse was interrupted by some invisible blow to his nose.

"Stop it, you!" Naruto snarled as he closed in, ready to punch the ninetales in the nose. "Stop—"

The ninetales fixed its one red eye on him in a glare the flashed blue—

It was like an invisible fist hit him in the stomach, knocking the air from his lungs. Then another fist slammed into his knee, dropping him to the leaf-covered ground. And then another unseen fist collided with his cheek.

Coughing for breath, Naruto fumbled for a pokéball and retracted Demon's bloodied from into it, protecting him from further harm and leaving the ninetales' jaws empty.

The nine-tailed fire fox gave him a look of pure malice and charged him, intent on getting revenge for having his chosen victim stolen from him.

"Eclipse, use _psybeam_!"

"Dusk, give it a _faint attack_!"

The ninetales buckled as an umbreon appeared from thin air as it collided with the fox's flank. Then the yellow-ish fox was knocked backwards by a multi-colored beam of psychic energy. Wheezing, Naruto struggled to his feet and glanced over his shoulder to see a pale violet espeon perched on a nearby tree stump, its split tail swishing in agitation.

Both rookie officers appeared moments later, their other pokémon stored away and out of sight.

"You're crazy, kid!" Kotetsu snapped as he helped Naruto keep his feet.

"This ninetales is powerful; dangerous," Izumo observed. "It knows _extrasensory_."

"A psychic attack?" Naruto coughed. _If that's the case…_ He immediately recalled Gamakichi; being a poison and a fighting type, the toad was extremely weak to psychic assaults.

The ninetales rolled to its paws and shook off the one-two punch like it wasn't anything serious. With a snarl, it charged them again, ignoring the pokémon in favor of focusing on the humans. That was a costly mistake.

"Eclipse, _confusion_!"

"Dusk, _confuse ray_!"

The _confusion_ attack stopped it, and the _confuse ray_ left it stumbling and unfocused. Naruto took advantage of this and tried to use one of his great-balls to catch it. But the ninetales was barely in the sphere for a second before burst free, shattering the great-ball into useless shards of metal and plastic.

And that snapped the ninetales out of its confusion.

"Aw, crap," Kotetsu muttered.

"Bolt, _double team _and _quick attack_!" Naruto called out.

The pikachu, now recovered from the shock of the psychic attack, boosted his speed and evasion to the point where he could create illusory copies of himself. Then all the images of Bolt charged the ninetales in a high-speed attack. _Quick attack_ was hard to defend against because of its speed, but with _double team_ it was impossible, and the ninetales took a direct hit.

Of course, _quick attack_ wasn't very powerful, just very fast, so the blow didn't take a significant chunk of the feral ninetales' health.

"This thing's strong," Izumo muttered as his espeon crept over to his side and the ninetales swatted angrily at Bolt's illusion, quickly eliminating the fake copies. "We need something super effective."

"Do you have any water pokémon?" Kotetsu asked.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, and pulled Bolt out of the fight before the ninetales could set the pikachu on fire. "Typhoon, _aqua tail_!"

The massive gyarados exploded onto the scene, but his _intimidate_ barely seemed to faze the raging ninetales. As the sea serpent brought his tail, shrouded in swirling streams of water, to crush the ninetales, it lunged right for it. Opening its jaws, the ninetales spewing an intense burst of flame so hot that the tip branched into fire.

"That's some _fire blast_," Kotetsu muttered, awed.

The intense heat boiled off all the water from Typhoon's tail before it could hit the ninetales and almost burned the gyarados' armored scales. Without the water, the tail blow wasn't nearly as effective as it was supposed to be. Once the steam and flames cleared, the ninetales was eye-to-eye with Typhoon, staring the water monster down with a glowing red eye.

And then Typhoon collapsed and started to snore.

"It can use _hypnosis_ too?!" Izumo hissed.

Naruto clenched his teeth and pulled the snoozing Typhoon out, then called on Bolt again. "Give that nasty ninetales a _thunder wave_!"

The paralyzing blast of electricity halted the violent fox mid-step. Taking advantage of its temporary disability, Naruto pulled out his last great-ball and tried catching it again. But even paralyzed, the monster was only contained for a moment before blasting free and leaving the spherical capsule shattered into pieces.

_Ah, those things are expensive!_

"Try again," Kotetsu encouraged. "It lasted a bit longer this time!"

"I'm all out," Naruto swallowed as the one-eyed ninetales glared hatefully at him. "Why don't you guys try?"

"We only have a few basic pokéballs," Izumo replied.

The ninetales snarled and fought the paralysis, managing a few lurching steps towards them.

"So what do we do now?" Naruto asked nervously.

"…I say we run," Kotetsu suggested.

"Yeah, a strategic withdrawal works for me," Izumo nodded.

Naruto just picked Bolt up and ran up the slope, heading for home. The way the ninetales seemed focused on him with such an angry eye made his skin crawl. If it wasn't paralyzed, he was sure that the yellow fox would keep running at him until he ran out of pokémon to defend himself with.

_And I thought that ghost pokémon were scary!_

He kept on running until a painful stitch in his side made him stop and lean against a tree while he caught his breath. Izumo and Kotetsu had kept pace with him and now kept their eyes out for any pursuit. Their umbreon and espeon were also tuned for danger—their ears were pricked and twitching.

"Man, I was not expecting that!" Kotetsu panted. "Who knew there was a beast like that out here?"

"That thing is definitely bad news," Izumo muttered, rubbing between his espeon's ears. "Eclipse is still shivering."

Naruto eased Bolt up onto his shoulder and fingered Demon's pokéball.

_Why did you leave?_

_ And what the heck did you do to make the ninetales turn you into a chew toy?!_

* * *

The ninetales seethed as the vulpix hurriedly fetched him a cheri berry along with sitrus and oran berries to heal his battle damage.

_That little wretch! I try to help him and he steals from me! That golden-furred worm!_

His one red eye blazed hotter.

_And that human, that boy… How dare he interrupt my justice! __**How dare he try to capture me?!**_

As the paralysis eased, he stumbled back to his den, oblivious to the gaggle of worried vulpix that followed him.

_When my strength is restored I'll get them both! I'll make them pay! I'll make them all pay!_

The one-eyed ninetales settled into his grassy bed and stewed on this and many other grudges.

_Master Madara… Master Susano… Master Shisui… I'll tear through the whole human race if I have to! And when I find you, you'll all pay! __**You'll all pay for leaving me!**_

* * *

Kushina stretched and sighed as she left the Inuzuka house. It had been an interesting meeting. Tsume had been so eager to show off some newly hatched growlithe puppies that she'd bred to know _howl_ and _fire spin_ that it had been difficult to get to the point of her visit.

But once she'd admired the cute puppies and gotten a few words in edgewise, their little meeting had been very productive. Tsume had been quite shocked to hear what had been going on while she and her daughter had been off inspecting their various canine pokémon ranches spread throughout Fire Country. And the Inuzuka woman was more than ready to help get things back under control.

_"What timing, huh? I go off on vacation and look what happens! Well, I'll send Hana over to help you and the professor tomorrow. She's got a little pet vulpix—I'm sure you could use little Pixy as a spy or something. If you need anything else, just ask. The Inuzuka are happy help get these wild foxes back in line!"_

The red-head smiled as she headed home, satisfied at her success. But, as her house came into sight, her smile faded.

_I hope Naruto found his vulpix. And I hope nothing bad happened. If only I could've gone with him…_

Shaking her head, she stepped inside and went about preparing her monsters' lunch. She gathered up their feed bowls, poured basic pokémon kibble into them, and started adding bits of fruit, vitamins, and microwaved bits of meat she had pre-diced and stored in her fridge. As she ran through the familiar routine she stared out her kitchen window at the calm expanse of Lake End.

_I really love this house. I—_

A large black bird swooped down to hover in front of the window and lightly pecked at the glass.

"…Kage?"

The honchkrow tapped the glass some more before back-winging to land on the back steps' railing.

Kushina abandoned her pokémon food preparation and hurried out the back door to see what had brought the honchkrow all the way to her home. She found a small bag hanging around the bird's neck and when Kage offered it to her with his beak she wasted no time peeking inside. Its contents were a pokéball and a folded note.

"Huh, I wonder what this is…"

Very intrigued, she unfolded the note and read it.

_Since it'll be a while until I can get there, I figured I'd send some help ahead. I've given Kyuubi instructions to listen to you and Naruto until I get there so she shouldn't give you any trouble. Vulpix really look up to ninetales so, if all else fails, maybe she can persuade them to stop misbehaving._

_ Love you and see you soon,_

_ Minato_

"Aw," she laughed and shoved the note into her pocket. "Now I'll definitely have to save him a piece of cake… Come inside," she said to the honchkrow. "I'm sure you're hungry after flying all this way."

The large bird happily hopped after her into the house (as there wasn't enough room for him to flap his wings and fly) and pecked away at a dish of food that she threw together for him.

While Kage ate, she opened the pokéball he had brought her and couldn't help but admire the fox creature that emerged from it. Kyuubi was a beautiful creature with silky pale gold fur and nine elegant orange-tipped tails. The female ninetales regarded her curiously with bright ruby eyes.

"Well hello!" Kushina smiled and held out her hand so that the yellow fox could smell it. "It's a pity that we haven't met before, but better late than never, right?"

_A nine-tailed secret weapon…could be just what we need._


	6. Part VI

**Freaky Foxes**

_Part VI_

Naruto trudged home, tired and worried. While Izumo and Kotetsu had gone off to get scolded by their superiors for not notifying their supervisor of what they were doing, he had gone to Professor Sarutobi for help. Even though it was Sunday, the old man had opened his lab so that Demon and Naruto's other monsters could get medical treatment.

With the rapid medical treatment, Demon would be fine, he probably wouldn't even scar. But the professor insisted on keeping the vulpix overnight so that Demon could rest and recover more. And even after Naruto picked him up Monday morning the vulpix would have to be kept out of battle situations for several days or risk re-injuring himself.

Evening was approaching and the sun was starting to set, laying long shadows on the path as Naruto walked. By the time he got home, it should be about dinner time. But with all the craziness that had happened during the day, he wasn't left feeling all that hungry.

_I wonder where that ninetales came from… And what made it so mean?_

Rounding the bend, his house came into view. Warm yellow lights shone through the windows as if to welcome him home. Adjusting his white jacket (which was now scuffed and dirty) he headed for the front door and stepped inside.

"_Taidama_—eh?!"

For a moment, he feared that the ninetales from the woods had beaten him home and invaded his house. But the nine-tailed fox turned towards him and revealed that it had two whole eyes instead of the scarred face that he'd expected. It was clearly a different fox that was lounging in the living room.

"Where'd you come from?!"

The ninetales simply blinked at him.

There was a _thump_ and a muffled curse from somewhere else in the house.

"Mom?" Naruto called out worriedly, not daring to leaving the front door and walk past the strange ninetales.

He heard some quick footsteps and then his mother came into view. "Oh, you're home—is that blood on your shoulder?!"

"It's not mine," Naruto answered quickly.

"Then where did it come from?" she asked, striding over and peeling his backpack and the dirty jacket off his back before he could protest.

"A wounded abra fell on me."

His mother frowned at him. "That wouldn't be the abra I've been chasing all over the house, would it?"

Naruto squinted a bit in confusion. "Why are you chasing it?"

"Well, when I got home I went to check your room to see if you'd beaten me back and I saw it sleeping on your bed. I went to investigate, and it _teleport_ed on me." She grimaced. "I guess it reappeared on top of Kyuubi, it woke up, it made this screaming sound, and it's been zigzagging all over the house via _teleport_ ever since. So far it's broken several dishes and picture frames…and generally just made a mess."

"Sorry," Naruto cringed. "And…Kyuubi?"

"She just got here a few hours ago," his mother said, gesturing towards the ninetales. "Your father sent her."

"He sent her?" Naruto immediately relaxed.

"Yeah, I told him what was going on here and, since he's all tied up with this fishing thing he got signed up for, he sent Kyuubi over to see if she could help us out."

Naruto's spirits immediately sank. "Oh, okay." _So he won't be coming…_

There was another _thump_, like a stack of books had been knocked over somewhere.

"There it goes again," his mother muttered. "I tried bringing Hoshi in to block its _teleport_, but that abra is slippery." She threw his dirty jacket over her arm and tucked his bag under her arm, and shoved him deeper inside the house. "Well, since you brought this houseguest in, catch it if you haven't already or kick it out. I need to clean up the broken glass."

"Okay," Naruto nodded, skirting around Kyuubi and venturing into the house in search of the troublesome psychic monster.

While his mom dug out a broom and dustpan, Naruto started checking every room. As his mother had said, all sorts of things from books to vases to wall pictures had been disturbed by the wild pokémon's panic. When he reached the door to his room, he found Hoshi the starmie floating there, central jewel focused through the doorway.

"Hoshi, is it in there?"

_Flash. Flash._

"Thanks."

Naruto squeezed past the giant purple starfish and flipped on the light switch. His room, barely clean on the best days, looked like a pokémon had used _whirlwind_ in it. Not seeing the bright yellow creature anywhere in plain sight, Naruto started checking his shelves, the inside of his closet, and the tangled lump of sheets on the bed to see if it was hiding.

"Not here… Not here… Not—_yah_!"

Pausing in his inspection of his bed-sheets, he glanced down to see the abra's claw-like hand clutching his ankle from the shadowy recesses under his bed.

"Th-there you are." Naruto sighed and crouched down by his bed. "What are you doing down there?"

The abra slowly crawled out into the light, still tightly clutching its precious spork and with tears gathered at the corners of its squinty eyes. The bandages on its shoulder had come loose, and smears of pink signaled that the wound had started to bleed again. It just looked so pathetic sitting huddled on his floor…

"What's up with you, huh? How come you gave my mom such a hard time?"

It didn't answer; it just held up its arms to him like a small child would to ask to be carried.

"You're heavy…and you made a mess of everything," Naruto frowned, and took the abra's non-spork hand. "You can walk."

The fox-faced creature clutched his fingers tightly and toddled after him as if it were a human child. However, its obedience ended the instant it came too close to Kyuubi. The sight of the creamy-yellow fox immediately had the abra squealing and crawling up Naruto's leg.

"Gak!"

_"Quit horsing around!"_ his mother shouted from the kitchen. _"If that thing breaks anything else…I won't let you eat ramen for your birthday dinner!"_

Naruto immediately started to sweat as he wrangled with the wriggling psychic beast. "Hey, hey calm down!"

The abra didn't listen.

"Mom, where did you put my bag?!" Naruto yelped, trying not to topple over from the flailing abra's weight.

_"I left it outside the laundry room."_

Naruto headed for the location as quickly as he could. Fortunately, the laundry room was in the opposite direction of the ninetales, and as soon as the abra couldn't see Kyuubi anymore it calmed down from flailing in panic to sniffling and clinging. This made it a lot easier to move, but the abra was still heavy…and very clingy.

Reaching his black and blue bag, Naruto flopped down on the floor and dug around in it with one hand. "What's up with you, huh? You were behaving so good before…"

The squinty-eyed monster whimpered and tightly clutched the front of his shirt.

_…Scared…_

Naruto frowned at the weird cold tingle that ran up his arms and down his spine. "How come you stuck around here? I left the window open so you could leave if you wanted to. …You want to stay?"

The sniffles stopped and it peered up at him, lizard-like tail slowly wagging.

"That's a yes, I guess…" He finally found a pokéball in his bag and was about to use it on the abra when a thought struck him. "Hey…was that mean, one-eyed ninetales out in the forest the thing that bit you?"

The abra's eyes opened wide again (which was just as creepy-looking as the first time he'd seen it) and it looked around in a panic, as if expecting an attack.

_…Scared!…_

"It's not here, I swear! The ninetales in the living room is a different one…never mind," he sighed, seeing that his assurances had no effect, and held out the pokéball. "Here, you won't have to worry about any ninetales in here."

The abra instantly dove into the sphere, and within moments the ball had vanished in a flash to reappear in the professor's lab.

_I wish I just did that in the first place…_ Naruto sighed and dragged his bag to his room, shooed Hoshi outside, and headed for the kitchen. …_I was just too worried about finding Demon._

"So, is the problem taken care of?" his mother asked as he entered the kitchen.

"Yep," Naruto replied, giving her a thumb's up.

"Excellent," she smiled and threw out the last pieces of a broken plate. "So did you find Demon? I meant to ask sooner, but the abra chase and your bloody jacket distracted me."

Naruto nodded, his worry rising again as he thought of the state he'd found the missing vulpix in.

"Help me get dinner started," his mother said, putting away the broom and dustpan, "and tell me everything…"

* * *

First thing Monday morning, Naruto was at the professor's lab, waiting for his vulpix to be returned to him. He sat in the small presentation room, which was mostly used as an informal meeting place when other researchers stopped by, and for Professor Sarutobi's yearly lecture to hopeful youngsters who were in the process of studying for their licensing test. His mother was also in the lab, off doing her assistant duties in checking the professor's e-mail for priority messages and such.

Naruto drummed his fingertips on one of the rectangular tabletops while he stared blankly at the large black screen on the far wall. _I hope that—_

"Tell me again why we're coming here so early?"

Peering over his shoulder, Naruto blinked in surprise as Izumo and Kotetsu came into the room.

"Because we need to tell the professor what we saw and experienced in the forest," Izumo sighed. "The chief ordered us to."

Kotetsu just yawned and slumped into a seat a few chairs down from Naruto. "It's too early…"

"Well, you don't want to get into any more trouble, do you?" Izumo countered.

"You guys got into trouble?" Naruto asked, feeling a bit guilty for accepting their help instead of looking for some other trainer to satisfy his promise to his mother.

"A little bit," Izumo shrugged. "It could've been worse for leaving our assigned post without telling anyone. It helped that we stumbled over information that could relate to the current issue with the local population of vulpix."

"I really wish someone would get around to fixing the radio in that guard shack," Kotetsu groaned. "At least then we'd have something to listen to while we sit there and do nothing…"

"I don't know about that," Izumo said. "Konoha Town's pretty quiet and safe. I doubt there'd be much radio chatter to listen to."

"Well, the radio can be tuned to music stations, right?" Kotetsu replied.

Izumo frowned slightly. "I don't think so…"

Kotetsu looked rather disgruntled at this as he scratched at the whiskers on his chin.

"Huh, I didn't know that there'd be other people here."

All three of them turned to find yet another person entering the presentation room.

Hana Inuzuka was Kiba's older sister and next in line to inherit the family business. She was pretty, even though she too had opted to have the family symbol—the red fang—tattooed on her cheeks. Kiba's sister was passionate about canine pokémon and she was more than fierce enough to intimidate her younger brother.

"Hello…" Izumo greeted, puzzled.

"My mom volunteered my help for the fox monster problem," Hana cheerfully explained. "So here I am!" She hopped up to sit on the table top. "It's too bad my mom and I left when we did. If we'd been in town when this mess started, we would've taken care of it within the week!" She squinted at Naruto curiously. "Hey, aren't you one of Kiba's friends? …Ramen?"

The boy scowled in response. "My name's Naruto."

"Oh, right," she grinned. "I knew it was something soupy."

Kotetsu snickered.

"Oh good, it looks like everyone's here," Iruka remarked with a smile as he entered the room. "Here you go, Naruto," he said, handing the boy a pokéball. "The professor should get here in about ten minutes. Please make yourselves comfortable until then."

Iruka bowed, and withdrew to take care of whatever tasks he'd been assigned for the day.

"Whatcha got there?" Hana asked curiously, eyeing the pokéball in his hands.

Still a bit annoyed by the "soupy" comment, Naruto simply opened the sphere and let Demon out.

The vulpix materialized on the table in front of him, curled up and asleep. He looked a lot better with the blood gone from his golden fur. Naruto gently ran a hand along Demon's spine, careful not to press hard and aggravate any tender, barely-healed spots.

"…I thought something looked off," Izumo said, "but with the blood and dirt all over him I wasn't sure."

"You weren't kidding when you said it would be obvious if your vulpix got sucked into any food raids," Kotetsu remarked.

Hana looked intensely interested at the sight of his dozing fox. "…What is it?"

"A vulpix," Naruto answered slowly.

"No," she shot him an annoyed glance. "I meant: what gender is it?"

"Oh, he's a boy."

The Inuzuka teen was positively gleeful. "That's great! I have a female vulpix. Would you like to arrange a time to try and breed them? I'd love to see if that color gets passed on."

Naruto blinked. He'd never given much thought to pokémon breeding, and whenever it had come up in class he would stop paying attention. Breeding was somewhat expensive, and worse it could be time-consuming. It took time for the pokémon to produce an egg, and then more time for the egg to hatch, and then time until the hatched pokémon was ready to be used in battle. There _were_ some advantages—pokémon that hatched in captivity bonded faster to their trainers, which they viewed as their parents, and certain pairings could produce offspring with unusual move-sets. But still he'd never given any serious consideration to trying it.

"Really?" Naruto scratched at his scarred cheek.

"Of course! Here," she pulled a pokéball off her belt, "you can meet her and see what you think."

The vulpix she released had the usual color scheme of the species. It was well-groomed and healthy. But what really caught Naruto's eye was the yellow ribbon tied in a bow around the base of the fire fox's six curly tails.

"A bow?" Kotetsu said quizzically.

"It makes her look cuter," Hana informed him and then refocused her attention on Naruto. "Now, I caught her from the wild so I can't give you any pedigree on her, but Pixy is very well behaved and obedient and while I haven't battled with her nearly as much as my other pokémon, she has performed well."

Naruto shifted uncomfortably. "Uh…do I have to decide now?"

"No, this offer is open indefinitely, just let me know." She gave him a feral grin. "Since you're one of Kiba's buddies, I'll give you a great deal."

"Thanks," Naruto grinned nervously.

Kotetsu took advantage of the brief lull in conversation and brought out Vixen, who was still timid and cringing away from everyone. "Here's one of the culprits captured just yesterday. What's your professional opinion on her?"

"You caught one?" Hana murmured, moving in close and gently prodding the little fox to gauge its temperament. "Huh, shy little thing. It's hard to imagine it raiding grocery stores and stealing food off café tables."

"I'm thinking it was the pack mentality," Kotetsu shrugged. "There were about fifteen of them raiding the bakery and she just got left behind."

"Ah…" The Inuzuka girl kept on checking the quivering fox over, lightly running her fingertips all over its body, even getting a peek at its teeth. "A nice coat for being fresh-caught, very nice tails, good teeth…a little grooming and a better diet and she'll look fantastic. She has great potential for _captivate_ and picking up the TM for _attract_ would be a good investment. But in order to use those moves effectively—to be able to battle at all—she needs a big confidence boost, and that'll take time and patience."

"Great," Kotetsu grumbled. "I caught me a fixer-upper…"

"You're not going to ditch her because of that, are you?" Hana asked disapprovingly.

"No, no," the rookie officer muttered. "It's just frustrating."

The fierce Inuzuka girl flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. "Good."

Demon decided to wake up about this time. The golden vulpix yawned, blinked, and started at finding Hana Inuzuka's vulpix, Pixy, sitting in front of him and watching him curiously. Slowly glancing around, he eyed timid Vixen, studied Izumo, Kotetsu, and Hana, and then looked over to Naruto. And then the vulpix stiffly sat up and rolled something that he'd been curled around to Naruto's hands.

"Huh, what's this?" Naruto frowned.

It looked like a pokéball, but it wasn't like one he'd ever seen before. The lower half of the shrunken sphere was a metallic silver color instead of the white of most types of balls, and the top half was black. When he tapped the button and expanded the sphere, he could see fine silver kanji painted on the black expressing power, good fortune, strength, and a slew of other positive things. And painted right over the button was a red and white _uchiwa_ fan—the symbol of the prestigious and ancient Uchiha clan.

"Fancy," Kotetsu remarked. "Could be a custom ball; I hear some rich people get those for their beasts."

"Is there anything in it?" Izumo wondered.

Naruto held the button down to open it, but there was nothing inside.

"I wonder where your vulpix found that," Hana mused. "No Uchiha would just throw something like that away. And vulpix don't have the _pick up_ ability—pokémon that do practically have a sixth sense for discarded items."

"Too bad he can't just tell me…" Naruto pouted. _A lot more things would be easier if humans could understand pokémon the way they can understand each other._

Vixen barked something, which was surprising as Naruto had barely heard a whimper from the cringing creature before. Demon snorted and yapped something back at her. Vixen seemed quite upset by whatever he'd said, and even went so far as to dart at him like she was going to attack. But Pixy interfered, using a small _roar_ attack which startled Vixen badly enough for her to tumble off the table top and land on the floor.

"Well…that was unexpected," Kotetsu said, walking around to the other side of the table to retrieve his vulpix.

"Do girl vulpix fight over boy vulpix?" Izumo wondered.

"I've never seen it, but I suppose it's possible," Hana said with a shrug.

Naruto gave Demon a suspicious look. "Do you say stuff to other monsters to piss them off on purpose?"

Demon sniffed and poked the strange pokéball with a paw.

"I hope I didn't keep you all waiting too long," Professor Sarutobi said apologetically as he entered the presentation room. "How is everyone this morning?"

"Pretty good," Izumo said.

"I wish I was still in bed," Kotetsu grumbled, returning to the chair he'd claimed with Vixen (once again timid and shrinking) in his lap.

"I'm ready and raring to go!" Hana grinned.

"I'm good," Naruto replied and held out the strange ball. "Have you ever seen a pokéball like this one before?"

The professor took the sphere and squinted as he studied. "I've seen a few similar to this," he said slowly. "Where did you get it?"

"Demon had it," the boy answered. "I have no idea where he got it from."

"Hmm…" The professor moved to the computer terminal by the large screen on the wall, hooked the sphere into some machinery, and did some typing. "So, I hear you encountered an aggressive ninetales out in the forest with the wild vulpix?"

"Yeah," Naruto nodded vigorously. "It had this ugly scar over where its right eye should be and it was really nasty."

"It also seemed capable of using _hypnosis_," Izumo added. "That's not usual, is it?"

"Not without being bred for it or trained specially," the old man said as he stared intently at his computer. He hesitated a moment before activating the large wall screen and putting an image of a scar-faced ninetales up. "Did it look like this one?"

"Definitely," Naruto shuddered.

"I wouldn't forget that ugly face," Kotetsu nodded.

"Yes, that looks like the same one," Izumo replied.

"Does that ninetales belong to anyone?" Hana asked.

"It did once," the professor sighed. "The pokéball that Demon found belongs to this particular ninetales. Originally it had no nickname, but over the years it came to be referred to as 'Madara's Ninetales' or simply 'Madara' after its original trainer."

"Original trainer?" Naruto repeated. "Was it traded?"

"Not really," the professor said, and shrank the ninetales image to squeeze photographs of three men's faces and some tiny text about them. "Madara Uchiha was the first trainer and he captured it from the wild as a vulpix. Next it came into the custody of Susano Uchiha. And most recently it was put under the care of Shisui Uchiha."

"Professor, those dates…" Izumo trailed off uncertainly.

Naruto looked at the information blurbs and noted a span of years listed by each Uchiha's picture. _That Shisui guy looks like he's close to Sasuke's older brother in age, but…_

Professor Sarutobi fingered his unlit pipe and regarded them with a grim expression. "Those dates are their year of birth and year of death."

"Year of death?!" Kotetsu blinked, wide-eyed.

"Yes," the old nodded. "All three of them are dead…"


	7. Part VII

**Freaky Foxes**

_Part VII_

"Dead?!" Naruto sputtered.

"Those dates…" Izumo muttered. "How old is this ninetales?"

"As it was originally from the wilds, his age is only an estimate," the professor answered. "The best guess is a few decades shy of one hundred."

Naruto gawked in shock. "How could it be that old?!"

"Considering the estimated lifespan of the ninetales species, it's not all that old."

"Not…that old?" Naruto squeaked, boggled by the old man's statement.

"That's what he said," his mother whispered from behind him, startling Naruto almost out of his chair.

"Gah!"

"Good morning, Mrs. Uzumaki," Hana greeted cheerfully.

The red-haired woman sighed. "It's _Miss_ Uzumaki; I'm not married."

"When did you get here?" Naruto pouted.

"About a minute ago," his mother replied and glanced over at the screen. "So that's the ninetales you ran into in the woods?"

"Yep," Naruto nodded.

"Ah…" She studied the pictures on the screen. "Oh… The Uchiha clan… _Fun_…"

Kyuubi the ninetales poked her head over the table to study the screen.

"Look at that gnarly face," Naruto's mother said to the creamy yellow fox.

"A ninetales," Hana cooed. "I didn't know you had one, Mrs. Uzumaki."

At the mention of another ninetales, all three vulpix in the room immediately looked to the superior fox.

"I don't," the woman replied. "Kyuubi is here on loan. …And it's _Miss_ Uzumaki."

"May we get back on topic, please?" the Professor asked curiously.

"Of course," the red-head grinned and took a seat beside the ninetales.

Naruto raised his hand, as if he was back in school.

The professor looked amused as he pointed to the boy with his pipe stem. "Yes, Naruto?"

"How long do ninetales live?"

"According to folklore, they have a lifespan of a thousand years," the old man answered.

Naruto was left speechless by the mind-blowing stretch of years. _That long?!_

"Science hasn't confirmed that?" Izumo wondered.

"No, modern science hasn't been around quite that long," the professor chuckled. "All that we do know is that no ninetales has ever been found to have died of old age; they die of drowning, starvation, injury, poison, infection, but never greatly advanced age."

"Whoa," Naruto breathed.

"Professor, what sort of history can you tell us about this ninetales' trainers?" the older Uzumaki asked. At Naruto's confused look, she explained herself further. "Trainers influence their pokémon. Knowing about them could give hints as to why this fox is the way it is, and perhaps how to stop it."

"Very good, I was just about to get to that," the professor said with an approving nod. "Now, as I said before, this ninetales' original trainer was a man named Madara Uchiha. Madara was a brilliant and charismatic young man who had great talent as a pokémon trainer and eventually became the patriarch of his clan. He was just as brilliant of a businessman, and completely restructured the clan's businesses into what would become the modern Uchiha Corp. that exists today. He captured his first pokémon—the vulpix that he would one day evolve into this ninetales—with his own bare hands, and used it to build an impressive battle team that included a houndoom, a charizard, a tyranitar, a sharpedo, and a gengar."

"Sounds like an impressive guy," Kotetsu commented.

"He was," the old man nodded. "But his great reputation didn't last. Those of the Uchiha bloodline are more susceptible to degenerative eye diseases, especially those with red eyes. Madara was a red-eyed Uchiha, and as he entered his middle years he slowly began to go blind. With his failing eyesight and slow loss of power within his own family, he became obsessed and paranoid. His long-time rivalry with Hashirama Senju went from friendly to very ugly on his side. He dreamed of controlling the legendary fire monsters—Moltres, Ho-oh, Entei, and Heatran—and sank ridiculous amounts of money into locating them with no success. And his final act of madness was attacking his younger brother on the mistaken belief that stealing his eyes would restore his own lost sight."

"He tried to rip his own brother's eyes out?" Naruto squeaked.

"Yes, he did," Professor Sarutobi replied grimly. "After that episode, he was exiled from the family and locked away in an isolated country estate with a minimal staff to see to his needs. Madara attempted to escape once with the aid of his pokémon, but failed and his creatures were forcibly taken from him and distributed to other Uchiha trainers. In the end, he died alone, a raving lunatic."

"How sad," Izumo remarked.

The professor paused for a moment before launching into the next bunch of information.

"After the ninetales was taken from Madara, it was granted to a moderately talented trainer named Susano Uchiha. Susano never achieved the greatness that Madara did in his training career, but with Madara's Ninetales he gained an impressive battle record. He became more known for possessing the fox, than anything else, especially since Madara's Ninetales rarely needed any command—he liked to fight without a trainer's guidance. But, being human, Susano grew old and, when his health began to deteriorate, he voluntarily gave up the ninetales. A few years later, he passed away from cancer."

"So then the ninetales was given to Shisui?" Hana guessed.

"After a few years of being looked after by some elderly Uchiha, yes, the ninetales was given to Shisui Uchiha to train and journey with," the professor said. "Shisui was one of the most promising young trainers of his generation. He was a dedicated trainer of fire-type pokémon, beginning with his torchic which quickly evolved up to blaziken, and continued with pokémon like rapidash, camerupt, flareon, and magmortar. For a time he was even considered by the Uchiha clan to take over the clan's gym. However, days before the clan elders could reach a consensus on the matter, Shisui's young life was tragically cut short."

Naruto was at the edge of his seat. "What happened to him?"

"No one is really sure, actually," Professor Sarutobi replied. "While he was visiting his immediate family, he went on a walk in a nearby forested area, and simply never returned home. A week later, his body was discovered in the Ash River, many miles downstream. He was badly decomposed, so it was impossible to be sure how he died, though it was officially ruled an accident. A few of his pokéballs were still attached to his belt, but the rest were believed to have been washed away. As far as I am aware, half of his six-monster team has been recovered, but the other three—including Madara's Ninetales—remain unaccounted for."

The old man rubbed at his receding hairline and sighed. "Shisui died roughly six years ago, so this ninetales has been out in the wild for all that time doing who-knows-what…"

"…It's too bad that they're all dead," Hana complained. "I'd love to get some firsthand information from them on this ninetales."

"That would make things simpler," the professor chuckled.

"Hey, Old Man, shouldn't we call some Uchiha person about this?" Naruto asked.

"The Uchiha clan is known for its secrecy," the elderly professor answered. "I'll certainly make some calls about this, but they aren't likely to give out much information…and if they do, it won't be much and it will take a long time for them to share it." He tapped some computer keys and changed the image on the big screen from pictures of the ninetales and its trainers to a map of Konoha Town and its surrounding area. "Now, let's see if we can pin down where this ninetales and the vulpix live…"

* * *

When the big picture on the wall changed from the image of "Guardian" and his old humans to some smattering of colored shapes that held no meaning as far as Demon could tell, he lost interest in the human discussion. He still felt tired and sore from the day before and it annoyed him. And Silky-Tails' presence only irritated him further.

_Crazy female,_ he thought darkly. _She blames me for her getting caught, and then she freaks out over me stealing that ninetales' "cage" so that the humans can "enslave" him again. She's pretty, but she's got fluff for brains!_

_:Are you alright?:_

Demon looked to the side to see the strange female vulpix with the bow around her tails; the one who had defended him. _:Hm?:_

_:You look tired,:_ she said. _:…I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name is Pixy. What's your name?:_

_:I—:_

_ :His name is Ugly,:_ Silky-Tails interjected, slipping out of her new human's lap and onto the top of the table with them. _:He's the local freak and a living curse. Why defend him?:_

_ :Why attack him?:_ Pixy countered. _:And what tells you that he's cursed?:_ She glanced back at Demon curiously. _:You're name isn't really "Ugly"…is it?:_

_ :My name's Demon,:_ he answered. He gave Silky-Tails a narrow look. _:So…what has your new human named you?:_

_ :I don't care!:_ Silky-Tails hissed, trembling. _:I don't want this! I hate this!:_

_ :Then leave,:_ Demon shrugged. _:When they aren't looking, just walk away.:_

_ :Wh-what?!:_ Silky-Tails squeaked, very confused.

_:Why would you tell her to do that?!:_ Pixy yelped, equally shocked.

_:She's not just terrified of humans, which makes her useless, but she's been brainwashed by that scar-faced ninetales that the humans were talking about, which makes her __**doubly**__ useless. It would probably be best if she just left and her human catches a vulpix from someplace else.:_ Demon glanced over at the humans, who were all clustered over by the screen, pointing at parts of it and arguing a bit. _:I don't even see why she came into town to steal food in the first place. She's such a coward.:_

_ :I'm no coward!:_ Silky-Tails barked. _:I came to prove my bravery to Guardian! If I distinguish myself, he might choose me to be a mate!:_

Demon snorted derisively. _:I think you failed.:_

_ :Shut up, Ugly!:_ Silky-Tails snarled.

_:I don't see why you call him "ugly",:_ Pixy frowned. _:He certainly looks different…even kind of cute.:_

Demon stared at the bow-tailed vulpix and felt his ears get hot. _…W-w-what?!_

_:How can you say that?!:_ Silky-Tails sputtered. _:Look at the color of his fur! There __**has**__ to be something wrong with him!:_

_ :That's not true.:_

All three of them jumped, startled at the female ninetales' voice.

_:There's nothing at all wrong with him.:_

Demon exhaled deeply in relief. It had been nice hearing that the first time from the ninetales that masqueraded as "Guardian", but it was many times better coming from this other ninetales that was surely sane. There was nothing wrong with him.

_:Who are you?:_ Pixy asked curiously.

_:My name is Kyuubi,:_ the ninetales answered. _:And I fight for the esteemed Minato Namikaze of Fire Country.:_

_ :A…human?:_ Silky-Tails asked, perturbed. _:You voluntarily serve a human? Why?:_

_ :Of course I do,:_ Kyuubi replied. _:Minato-kun was there from the very moment that I hatched. He raised me up from a one-tailed vulpix pup, trained me to be a fantastic fighter, and helped me evolve.:_

_ :How did he do that?:_ Demon asked, intensely curious.

_:With a __**fire stone**__,: _Kyuubi informed him. _:A special rock mined from under the ground. One day your human will find one for you, I'm sure.:_

_ So, it's a stone that I need…_ Demon thought. _I wonder if Whisker Face has one._

_ :Hana-chan won't,:_ Pixy remarked. _:She says that I'm perfect just the way that I am, and that she'd never change me.:_

_ :That is perfectly fine, too,:_ Kyuubi nodded in agreement.

Silky-Tails shifted about anxiously. _:I don't understand! This human may have done some good for you, but he __**enslaves**__ you. If you fail to meet his expectations, he'll abandon you!:_

_ :No he won't,:_ Kyuubi scoffed. _:And Minato-kun hasn't enslaved me. I fight for him and help him out of gratitude and love. There are regrettably some humans who demand too much of their monsters and leave them when they disappoint, but most are not like that; Minato-kun is not like that.:_ The female ninetales gave the formerly wild vulpix a curious look. _:Who taught you such negative things about humans? That creature was either very ignorant, or out-right lying to you.:_

_:Guardian would never lie to us!:_ Silky-Tails snapped. _:He protects us and will show us the way to greatness!:_

_ :So is that why he sends you into town to steal food from humans? To protect you? To make you great?:_ Demon rolled his eyes. And then he thought of something. _:Hey, does Scar-Face ever go with you on food raids? Or does he just send vulpix in to do his dirty work?:_

_ :Don't call him Scar-Face!:_ Silky-Tails wailed, kicking up enough fuss to momentarily distract the humans from…whatever they were discussing. _:He is Guardian and he is great!:_

_ :What's he done that's so great besides show you a bunch of neat attacks to prove how strong he is?:_ Demon countered. _:What has he protected you from? A few pokémon of other species that stumble over your food and only want to share a bite? …How is that great? How is what he did to that lost abra great? How is what he did to me great?:_

_ :Whatever he did to you, I'm sure you deserved it,:_ Silky-Tails sniffed. _:And that abra surely deserved it too.:_

_ :…I'm sensing some sort of bad blood here,:_ Kyuubi observed. _:Why are you two so antagonistic towards each other?:_

_ :Yes,:_ Pixy nodded. _:Why are you arguing?:_

_ :As I said before, he's a living curse; a freak. Bad things happened when he was around. Things got better after he left. No one wants him around.:_ Silky-Tails gave him a cold look. _:He's Ugly.:_

Kyuubi snorted disdainfully. _:You despise him because of empty superstition? How absurd!:_

_ :I hate her because she's just like all the others that I grew up with. They resented me, shunned me, made me feel worse than dirt, and I'm sure that when I left they celebrated! I was worthless just because I was born different. Seeing her again reminds me of all the reasons that I struck out on my own.:_ Demon walked to the edge of the table and prepared to leap down to the floor. _:And her stupid defense of Scar-Face doesn't help any.:_

Before Silky-Tails could retaliate with more angry nonsense, Demon dropped down to the floor and weaved around furniture legs to the cluster of humans by the wall screen. Locating Whisker Face's sneakers, he reared up and braced his paws on the boy's jeans. When the blond-haired human glanced down, he made as cute a face as he could manage.

"What, you tired of starting fights already?"

Demon pushed against the boy's leg.

"Okay, fine."

Whisker Face gently scooped him up from the floor. Demon poked his head over the boy's shoulder to look back at Pixy, Kyuubi, and Silky-Tails. Upon seeing Silky-Tails' baffled stare, he stuck out his tongue.

_Silly, fluff-brained female. She ate up all the crazy nonsense that Scar-Face fed her, and now she's stuck among "the enemy"… If she wasn't so mean, I might feel sorry for her._

* * *

Minato grimaced as he reluctantly perused the sporting goods section of the local shopping center. Unfortunately the fishing event he'd been signed up for did not provide fishing rods for rent; the entrants had to bring their own. And, of course, he didn't own one…which meant he had to buy one.

_Why do there have to be so many kinds of these things?_

There were rods meant for catching regular fish, and specialty rods meant for catching water pokémon. Of the pokémon rods, there were three main classes: basic, premium, and ultra. Kushina had lectured him on rods at least once (probably more), but she'd substituted "basic, premium, and ultra" with "old, good, and super".

Basic or old rods were…very basic. They were simple, cheap, and intended for casual fishermen, beginners, and children. And the only things they could catch are trash, ordinary fish, and magikarp.

Premium or good rods were middle of the road. They were more advanced, more expensive, and meant for hobby fishermen or lovers of water pokémon. Good rods could catch most species of water pokémon and much more powerful pokémon than the old rods. Kushina's rod had been a good rod, and a gift from one of her brothers.

Ultra or super rods were the highest end fishing poles for pokémon. They were the most state-of-the-art, the most expense, and intended only for the most skilled fishermen and die-hard lovers of water pokémon. Super rods could hook any water pokémon that swam and was something Kushina had dreamed of acquiring…but she'd never managed to save up enough money to purchase even a used one.

_Which one, which one, which one…_

Money wasn't much of an issue for him. With his salary and what he was paid for various appearances and endorsements he had a ridiculous (well, it felt ridiculous to him) amount of money. But he wasn't a big spender; his borderline poor background and living with his frugal half-uncle had left deep marks on him.

_Definitely not an old rod, those are useless. A good rod would probably be best—it's decently priced and versatile enough, and since I won't use it much it won't be throwing money away. But if I get a super rod, I could give it to Kushina, and it would surely get plenty of use…_

He paused by some display cases, showing off various colored super rods.

_The red and black one looks very nice… But then there's that blue one… I wonder if—_

"Hello, you're Minato Namikaze, right?"

Minato managed to keep from flinching as he turned to politely smile at the dark-haired woman who had spoken to him. She was very good-looking, almost like a movie star. In fact, with her dark sunglasses and simple but high quality clothes made him think of a starlet going incognito. And…she sort of looked familiar.

"Yes, I am," he nodded. "And you are…?"

"I'm Yukie Fujikaze," she smiled, pushing her sunglasses to the top of her head. "I'm best known for playing Princess Gale in the movies."

"Oh, I thought you looked familiar."

"You've seen my movies?" Yukie asked, flattered.

"Yes, they're very fun," he replied with a smile. "Who doesn't love a good fantasy-action film?"

"They certainly are fun, but lately I've been looking for more serious projects—"

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

Minato felt himself start to sweat at the sound of the new, velvety female voice. Glancing to the other side of the aisle, he found an auburn-haired woman dressed in a provocative blue outfit. Her hair was done up in a complicated style that left only one perfectly made-up eye visible.

"Ah, Minato-san, this is the Champion of Water Country," Yukie said with a smile. "I'm sure that you've met her before."

"Yes, we've encountered each other a few times before," he replied, smiling tightly. _Please don't let her proposition me again…_

"Well, since I'm from the Land of Snow, and have no fishing experience, I asked her to help me out," Yukie explained. "There's a charity fishing competition on Wednesday…are you going to be competing too?"

Minato nodded, trying to ignore how the woman in blue was looking him up and down. "Yes, I am."

"Oh, what charity are you playing for?" Yukie asked. "I'm playing for one that benefits orphans."

"I play for one that benefits abused and abandoned pokémon," Minato answered. "I have a friend who runs a sanctuary that gets most of his funding from the charity."

The feminine Champion of _Mizu no Kuni_ suddenly chuckled. "This will certainly be an interesting event," she purred. "The Champions of four of the five great countries…all in the same competition."

"Four of the five?" Minato repeated curiously.

"I am also participating, as are the Champions of Earth and Lightning Country," the woman in blue replied. "Only Wind Country is not represented. But considering Wind Country is mostly desert and this is a fishing competition…"

"Yes, I can understand why he wouldn't participate," Minato agreed. "Well ladies, it was very nice talking to you, but I need to get going." He bowed and withdrew. "I'll see you Wednesday."

Hurrying out of the aisle and heading for the service counter, Minato did his best to ignore the two women admiring him…out loud.

_I can't wait for Thursday…_


	8. Part VIII

**Freaky Foxes**

_Part VIII_

Naruto strolled through the labyrinth of hallways in the professor's lab, holding a dozing Demon in his arms. After pinning down the location of the vulpix's home on the map, the adults debated on what should be done. There was a high chance of rain for the rest of the week, and the rogue ninetales would be at a disadvantage in the rain. Once it was weakened, and using the custom ball that it was attached to, it should be a simple matter of capturing it and turning it over to the nearest Uchiha—Sasuke's parents.

_So, Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on the weather, Mom and Kiba's sister get to hike out into the woods and go ninetales hunting. Mom uses her water pokémon, and Kiba's sister uses her canine pokémon knowledge. They beat it, catch it, and bring it to Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha. And then they decide whether to give it to some other Uchiha or…euthanize it._

It was hard to think of putting a pokémon to sleep, but sometimes it had to be done. When pokémon grew old and their lives became nothing but pain and suffering, it was kindest to end it for them than force them to linger on in misery. And with long-lived species, like dragons, they would sometimes go mad when their trainers died and there was just nothing else that could be done with them.

_"Sometimes the pokémon will even end it themselves,"_ the professor had said to him when explaining why euthanasia was sometimes necessary. _"They will starve themselves, or put themselves in a situation where they will die. There are tales of loyal ninetales and arcanine who throw themselves into the sea and drown, and dragon pokémon who fly to frozen mountain tops or far northern latitudes so that they will freeze to death. They love their trainers so much that they simply can't bear to live without them… But such cases are uncommon, and if the pokémon has time to bond with a new trainer before the previous trainer dies the transition is much easier."_

Rounding a corner, Naruto was so distracted by thinking that he almost walked into Iruka.

"Hey there Naruto! Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Naruto nodded. "…Hey, could I visit my stored pokémon?"

"Sure," Iruka smiled. "This way."

The pokémon storage area was the biggest room in the whole lab. It was a small warehouse filled with shelves and shelves of all kinds of pokéballs, filled with all kinds of pokémon from all sorts of trainers from Konoha Town and the surrounding rural area, as well as some friends of the professor's. Robotic claws usually fetched the pokémon electronically requested for swapping by trainers or received newly-caught excess pokémon, but on the rare occasion that the automated system was broken or down for maintenance, Iruka, Ebisu, and his mother would take turns manning the room and fulfilling any trainer requests.

Upon reaching the cavernous room, Iruka had him wait by the door while the man navigated the endless shelves. A few minutes later, he returned with a tray bearing two pokéballs and a great-ball. Then it was off to an empty, unused lab room so that Naruto could let most of his monsters free.

"I hadn't noticed that you'd caught a new creature," Iruka remarked as he shut the door behind them. "What did you get?"

"An abra," Naruto answered, calling out the creature in question.

The abra, now fully healed and still clinging to its precious white plastic spork, was…asleep.

"Impressive," Iruka chuckled. "What have you named it?"

"I haven't yet," Naruto shrugged, setting Demon down on the floor.

"Hmm, well how about…" Iruka paused. "Is it holding a spork?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah."

"Interesting." Iruka tapped his chin for a moment. "How about naming it Spork?"

The boy wrinkled his nose. "That sounds silly."

"What about Foon?" Iruka suggested.

"Huh?"

"It's another named for a fork and spoon combination."

Naruto had to think about that for a moment. "Oh… That's even sillier than Spork."

"Well…how about naming it after a famous intellectual? I know Ebisu named his alakazam Einstein," Iruka said.

While Naruto considered that option, Demon poked the snoozing abra with a paw. At first, the abra didn't react, but after a few minutes the yellow creature groggily straightened up and glanced around with its squinty eyes. When it saw Demon, it got all excited and started babbling and even tried to hug the fire fox.

_Well, at least he's not afraid of vulpix._ Naruto rubbed at the back of his head. _It's just the ninetales phobia that we need to work on…_

"Let's see…" Iruka mused. "There's Albert Einstein—Einstein's already taken, but I don't know any abra, kadabra, or alakazam named Albert—and Isaac Newton, and Nicolaus Copernicus, and Kepler…what was his first name?"

Naruto wrinkled his nose. "Why do smart guys have such weird names?"

"No idea," Iruka chuckled. "I'm sure that if they were still alive today they would find our names to be weird."

"Maybe," Naruto muttered as he watched his two pokémon converse.

"If your abra is a female, there's Marie Curie," Iruka continued. "And there are a lot of famous female novelists like Charlotte Bronte, and Emily Dickenson, and…"

"Wah, no more names," Naruto groaned. "It's a boy, anyway."

"Alright," Iruka nodded and settled back against a counter.

Naruto fidgeted with his pokédex as he considered his wide variety of naming options. "…I think…I'll go with Al."

"Nice choice," Iruka smiled while Naruto edited the abra's file in his pokédex.

_Hmm…abras are…kinda useless. All they can do is __**teleport**__ until they evolve, and __**teleport**__ is useless in battle… Raising an abra is kind of like…raising a magikarp, only harder, because magikarp will eventually learn __**tackle**__._

Naruto frowned in deep thought as he put his pokédex back into his pocket.

"…Hey, Iruka, can I switch Gamakichi for Al while I'm here?"

"Of course," the man said. "I'll go adjust your account right now. Just remember to leave your croagunk behind and take the abra when you leave."

"Okay," Naruto nodded as Iruka slipped from the room to get to a computer. When he was alone, his eyes fell on the pokéball and the great-ball that contained his ghosts. "Okay…"

* * *

Demon regretted waking the abra up because it just wouldn't stop talking to him. Apparently it was the same abra that Scar-Face had chewed on and it had somehow ended up as Whisker Face's newest minion. And the utensil-wielding creature's puppy-dog exuberance was very irritating.

_:Oh, oh, it's you, it's you!:_ the abra had said upon seeing Demon…and then tried to hug him. _:Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!:_

_ :What for?:_

_ :For showing me the way to the boy!:_ the yellow creature had replied. _:You showed me the smiling boy with the whiskers and his nice home by the lake! He made the pain go away and he fed me and let me sleep in his bed…:_

The abra had gone on to narrate a strange adventure involving an angry woman with red hair (surely Whisker Face's mother), a star with a powerful and strange mind, and that horrible, horrible monster. Demon wasn't sure that he believed all of it. At least, the parts of the story that he could follow; the abra talked rather fast like he was in a rush to tell everything all at once.

_:…and then I was here, and you were here!:_

Demon blinked at the return of silence.

_:…You're done?:_

_:Yep,:_ the abra said, wagging its tail. _:Could you tell me your story now?:_

_:…My story?:_ Demon repeated blankly.

_:Yes,:_ the abra nodded eagerly. _:How did you first meet the smiling whisker boy? What sort of adventures have you had? How did you escape from that horrible, horrible, mad creature?:_

Demon blinked. _:Er…:_

There was the sound of some pokéballs opening and Spooky and Drifter appeared in flashes of light.

_:Ooo…such a small room,:_ Drifter observed and went about probing the sturdiness of the ceiling.

_:Hey, it's Naruto!:_ Spooky squealed, licking her pointed teeth. _:Come Naruto…scream for me!:_

The haunter briefly vanished from view, and reappeared directly behind the human boy and grabbed his shoulders.

"Gah!" Whisker Face yelped and rubbed at his arms to ward off the ghost's chill. "Why do you always do that to me?! …Quit laughing!"

Spooky just kept cackling, endlessly amused by the human's fear.

_:I am surrounded by weirdoes,:_ Demon sighed.

_:Ghosts,:_ the abra whimpered faintly. _:There are ghosts in here…:_

_ :Yes, I've noticed,:_ Demon muttered.

_:But…there are ghosts in here.:_

Having investigated the entire ceiling, the drifloon floated down to cheerfully wave hello to Whisker Face.

_:Nothing has changed since the last time you said that,:_ Demon grumbled.

_:But, there are __**ghosts**__ in here!:_

Demon glanced over at the abra, which was close to being in the fetal position. _:…You have a problem with ghosts?:_

_ :Well yeah!:_ the yellow creature squeaked. _:Not only are they scary, but I am weak against them!:_

_:Ah, I see.:_ Demon shifted a bit. _:Well—:_

_ :Oh look!:_ Spooky squealed, finally recovered from her laughing fit. _:A little psychic pokémon…:_ The haunter lolled out her long tongue. _:C'mere so I can taste you!:_

_ :Wah!:_ the abra bawled, curling into a ball and quivering.

Demon groaned and put a paw to his head. _I think I'm getting a headache…_

"Hey, Spooky, knock it off!" Whisker Face scolded. "Leave Al alone!"

_:I wasn't going to __**eat**__ him,:_ Spooky pouted. _:I just wanted to __**lick**__ him…:_

"I don't see what's so fun about scaring people all the time," Whisker Face huffed. "It might be interesting every now and then, but every day? All the time? It _has_ to get old."

_:No, it's always fun!:_ Spooky clapped.

_:I don't think so,:_ Drifter quietly disagreed.

_:Well you're boring,:_ Spooky sniffed.

Drifter whined and sank down almost to the floor where he lightly poked the shivering abra with his string-arms. _:Hi, I'm Drifter, do you want to play with me Al?:_

_ :Who is 'Al'? I don't know any 'Al',:_ the abra whimpered.

_:You are Al,:_ Demon informed the creature. _:That is your name now. Forget whatever else you were called before. __**You**__ are Al.:_

The abra—Al—slowly uncurled enough to peek out at Demon. _:…Really?:_

_ :Yes, really,:_ Demon nodded slowly.

_:I have a name now?:_

Drifter blinked his beady eyes. _:You didn't have a name before?:_

_:Oh, they called me all sorts of things,:_ Al answered. _:Chatterbox, weirdo, dork, screw-up… I'm so many things my relatives can never make up their minds on who I am!:_ And then Al seemed to remember that he was talking to a scary ghost balloon. _:…Please don't suck the life out of me…:_

_ :I won't do that, I promise,:_ Drifter replied.

This reassured the abra enough for him to uncurl, stand up, and tentatively poke Drifter's balloon head. _:…Squishy!:_

Drifter wrapped his strings around Al's wrist. _:So, we play now?:_

_ :Yeah!:_

The abra then proceeded to bound around the small lab room, waving his chunk of white plastic around, and towing Drifter behind him.

"Well, at least those two get along," Whisker Face grinned as he sat on the edge of the counter to stay out of their way. He glanced over at Spooky. "Why can't you play nice like that?"

_:Because it's boring,:_ Spooky yawned. _:And I am not boring.:_

The door to the room opened and some other human—one with a scarred nose—walked in. "Well, you're all set to—"

Al took the open door as an invitation to run out with his cheerful ghost balloon, and tripped the human in the process.

"—whoa!"

"Hey, Iruka, you okay?" Whisker Face asked worriedly.

"Yeah," the other human nodded, regaining his footing.

"Sorry about that," Whisker Face apologized, and then hurried out of the room after the mischievous abra. "Hey, Al, Drifter, come back here!"

_:Ooo, fun!:_ Spooky grinned and floated off in pursuit.

Demon sighed and followed at a more casual pace.

But it turned out that he didn't have to go far to catch up. Al had barely made it to the nearest intersection of hallways. He stood frozen, staring up at Kyuubi…a lot like the way he'd stared at mean old Scar-Face before he'd been chewed on.

_:…Please don't start screaming and __**teleport**__ing again,:_ Kyuubi frowned. _:That was very annoying.:_

Demon blinked. _…I think I missed something._

* * *

Naruto cringed when he found that Al had run straight into Kyuubi. It was comforting that the abra hadn't yet freaked out and repeated the frantic and destructive flight of the previous evening. But that could very easily change…

"Hey, Al, this is Kyuubi," Naruto said with slightly forced cheer. "She's very nice. Do you want to say hi?"

Al didn't budge or make a sound.

"Naruto," Iruka called out into the hall, "everything okay?"

"Yea—"

Spooky seemed to fly out of the wall, making one of her best scary faces. Naruto yelped, stumbled, and landed on his behind, barely missing Demon. Al shrieked, vanished with a _teleport_, and almost instantaneously reappeared behind Naruto's back, shivering and whimpering. No longer anchored to Al's wrist, Drifter floated towards the ceiling, squeaking uneasily. And Kyuubi…sprayed Spooky with a burning-hot _ember_ attack.

"…No," Naruto sighed as Spooky fled back down the hall, wailing and flailing to shake off a few lingering bits of fire. "I guess not."

Kyuubi growled and made to chase the mischievous haunter, but Naruto halted the ninetales' advance.

"Let it go," the boy sighed. "Spooky does that a lot. Sorry."

The nine-tailed vixen didn't seem particularly impressed by his words, but obeyed him nonetheless. Kyuubi was a rather aloof creature, Naruto had noticed. The many-tailed fox would follow whatever orders he or his mother gave her, but Naruto got the feeling that Kyuubi felt that obeying them was…_beneath_ her somehow.

"And you," he said over his shoulder to the cowering abra, "you don't have to be so afraid. I swear this ninetales isn't the same one that bit you."

Al didn't seem comforted by this, and made no move to release the back of Naruto's shirt, which made it impossible for him to stand up from the floor.

"Maybe I should get Ebisu," Iruka suggested. "His alakazam might help…"

Spooky chose to return, having regained her composure, and she looked angry. Intent on revenge for the fiery assault, the haunter cocked her fist for a _shadow punch_ and rushed down the hall to attack. Iruka ducked, while Naruto managed to free himself from Al's claws to stand in the way.

"No!" he scolded, stopping the ghost short. Naruto struggled not to shiver as the haunter's cold breath washed over his face. "You totally brought that on yourself. Knock it off or I'll put you away right now."

The _shadow punch_ fizzled out and Spooky drifted away in a pout.

"Now, back into the room," Naruto sighed.

Al hurriedly hopped up and scampered into the room, almost tripping Iruka again in the process. Drifter floated after the abra, and Spooky slunk after him. Demon remained, eying Kyuubi thoughtfully, but not speaking to her.

"I'd better go and supervise," the boy muttered. He glanced down to his vulpix. "Do you want to stay out here?"

Demon snorted and joined the others in the room.

Kyuubi shook herself off, and padded off down another hallway; she was more interested in checking out the laboratory than the people in it.

"…Well, if you don't need anything else, I have some work to get done," Iruka said.

"No, I'm good," Naruto replied. "I'll probably hang around for an hour or so and then go home."

"Alright," the man nodded. "Hopefully this mess with the wild vulpix will get ironed out before your birthday. I hear there'll be cake."

"Yeah," Naruto grinned. "You'll be coming?"

"Of course," Iruka chuckled as he headed off to his duties. "I wouldn't miss it!"

Naruto's grinned faded once the man was gone. Running a hand through his messy hair, he headed into the room and shut the door behind him. He watched Al hide in a corner while Spooky made faces at him while Drifter tried to make her stop and Demon just looked annoyed, before deciding to bring out some more friendly company for the little psychic monster.

"Alright," Naruto said, setting loose everyone but Typhoon (the room was just too small for him). "Everybody, meet Al. He's new."

Gamakichi and Shadow shooed Spooky off while Bolt and Sandy fussed over the quivering little creature. Once the haunter backed off, Al relaxed and happily interacted with the others. Well, he was a bit hesitant with Shadow, but Naruto guessed it was because the umbreon was a dark type. Dark type pokémon were fully immune to any sort of psychic power, and did devastating damage to any psychic that tried to fight them—so it was probably an instinctual anxiety that would ease once the abra got to know the dark eevee.

_I wonder…_ Naruto thought as he watched the pokémon play. _Could I get some sort of special pass so that they can all be at my house for my birthday? I'll have to ask the Old Man before I go home…_

* * *

The ninetales laid on a broad flat rock near the top of the hill and drank in the sunshine. His one eye glared off into space, flashing brightly every now and then. A few of the vulpix hovered around him, but they knew not to get too close while he was plotting…

_Soon little human… Soon treacherous Golden-One… Soon I'll have you!_

The wretched golden vulpix had had the gall to steal from him! The human had stolen his prey from him, and probably sent the unique vulpix to him in the first place! For their transgressions they would be punished!

His home, the precious custom pokéball given to him by Master Madara—they'd taken it from him. With it, they could stop his ambition! If he was trapped within it again, he would never be able to draw out the Uchiha masters who had so coldly discarded him.

The plan was simple. He had found a town in which some relatives of his old masters lived. He found a very pliable population of vulpix ready to do his bidding. And then he generated chaos—chaos that would surely draw the attention of the Uchiha and his old masters. When they came to investigate…he would punish them.

_But first the boy and the Golden-One. I will punish them—tear them to pieces! And then I will get my home back and proceed with my plan…_

There was some anxious shuffling, and then two vulpix cautiously approached him.

_:Guardian?:_ one squeaked nervously. _:We…we have the information that you wanted.:_

_ :We found where Ugly and that human live,:_ the second hurriedly said. _:We tracked them to an isolated human den beside The Lake.:_

The one-eyed ninetales slowly sat up and critically regarded the pair. _:Were you seen?:_

_ :No!:_ the first one said. _:We were very careful to stay out of sight.:_

_ :Good,:_ the ninetales nodded and stared up at the sky for a moment. _:…Tomorrow,:_ he decided after some thought. _:Tomorrow everyone will follow me to this place. I have a very important lesson to teach you all.:_

_ :What lesson is that?:_ one vulpix asked.

The ninetales smiled. _:I will teach you all the proper way to enact vengeance on those that have grievously wronged you. So watch closely and learn well…:_


	9. Part IX

**Freaky Foxes**

_Part IX_

"Wonderful weather," Kushina muttered as she and Hana Inuzuka forged on through the woods.

Tuesday morning had dawned gray and drizzly. The weather was enough to put their target, the rogue ninetales, at a disadvantage, but not nearly bad enough to make the journey too dangerous. And so, after a brief meeting at the professor's lab where they picked up the special pokéball, off they'd gone to recapture Madara's Ninetales and hopefully put a stop to the wild vulpix's chaos.

"Isn't it?" Hana sighed as she readjusted the hood of her raincoat yet again.

"At least we should be almost there," Kushina remarked after nearly slipping on a slick tree root.

"That is if they estimated the den location accurately," Hana grumbled. "…I hate rain."

Kushina pushed some damp strands of hair from her forehead and squinted against the foggy, drizzly, gloom. "I'm sure that we'll be there soon."

The soggy, leafy ground suddenly sloped downwards into a ditch that had a stream of rainwater flowing through it. The other side of the ditch rose up into a decent-sized hill, dotted with bushes and trees. Aside from the pattering of falling moisture, there wasn't a sound.

"This is the place," Kushina said quietly. "It shouldn't be far now. Keep on your toes."

They hopped over the temporary stream and very carefully picked their way up the moderately steep hillside. It wasn't long before they found the first little den dug into the side of the hill. And then they found another, and another, and another.

"Huh…I'd say that the population of vulpix here has to be around forty to fifty," Hana estimated once they reached the nearly flat top of the hill. "That's pretty unusual; normally vulpix live in smaller groups. Maybe a few smaller clans met up and settled here…"

"I'm more worried about where they all are," Kushina frowned. "With this crummy weather, they all should be here."

But every single den was empty.

"Yes, they should be here; fire pokémon avoid any sort of rain like the plague," Hana agreed with a frown. She called out a scruffy mightyena. "Wolf, I know it's raining, but I want you try and track a scent trail."

While the wolf-like dark pokémon strived to smell more than wet leaves and mud, Kushina felt the beginnings of dread prickle at the back of her neck.

_I don't like this…I don't like this at all._

* * *

Naruto breathed on the windowpane to fog the glass and then doodled gym badges and nonsense symbols with his finger. Bored with the activity, he sank deeper into the living room couch and sighed. With the weather so crummy, he didn't feel like going outside, but there was nothing interesting on TV, so he was horribly bored.

_Man, I forgot how boring it can be at home…_

He'd wanted to go with his mother to help recapture the ninetales, even with the drizzly skies, but she'd told him no. It had already been decided that she and Hana would go. Too many people stalking the nine-tailed fox would alert it to their presence, and it already seemed pretty mad at him.

_"Ninetales are intelligent creatures,"_ the professor had lectured him the previous day. _"And at times they can be vengeful. There's no reason for you to go after it again and risk driving it to form a grudge against you. Your mother and Hana are the best qualified for dealing with this situation and so they are the ones going."_

He trusted the old man's wisdom and gave in. But he still didn't like it. And wasn't just because he was really bored.

_I know Mom and all her monsters are awesome, and Kyuubi is with her too, but that ninetales…_ He shuddered as he remembered the burning look in its eye as it repeatedly rushed at him. _That thing is intense._

Demon napped on one of the couch arms. Al sat on the other, out cold. Typhoon was out in the lake, enjoying the water and completely unbothered by the weather. Shadow lay curled up on the living room rug, and Bolt dozed on his back. And Sandy perched on the sill of a different window and pawed every now and then at the glass.

_…Stupid weather,_ Naruto stewed, plucking at a loose thread hanging off one of the couch cushions. _Rain all the rest of the week… What a gloomy birthday I'm going to have._

Sandy abruptly took flight and started bumping her head against the glass like a fly trapped in a house. Naruto watched her for a minute, and when it was clear that she wasn't going to stop, he got up to let her outside. If she got too frustrated, she could break the window…and then _he_ would have to pay for it.

"Calm down, I'm coming," Naruto sighed.

He pried open the window, Sandy zipped outside, and…he noticed the hedges at the boundaries of his grassy yard rustle. Sandy darted straight for the shifting foliage and flitted around it curiously. And then a spray of _embers_ exploded out of the bushes, driving the investigating vibrava back.

"Whoa!"

Naruto almost tripped over his own shoes in his haste to get out the front door and over to the side of the house where the fiery sparks had appeared. The grass was slippery from the heavier rain that had fallen hours earlier and he lost his footing just as he was rounding the corner of the house. As he scrambled back up from the soaked ground he saw the source of the fire.

Vulpix. Dozens and dozens of them. There were easily three times as many as he'd seen in town attacking the bakery. They spilled out of the hedge and scattered over the damp lawn, some of them spitting _ember _attacks at Sandy to drive her even further back.

_What are they all doing here?!_

And then it appeared. Madara's mighty one-eyed ninetales emerged from the shadows and leaves. The scar-faced fox focused his one red eye on Naruto and snarled.

_…Oh shit._

With a furious bark, the ninetales charged at him.

"Sandy, _supersonic_!" Naruto yelped, pointing frantically at the aggressive fox.

_Supersonic_ was a tricky move to use. If it didn't hit the target creature just right, or the target wasn't exposed to it long enough (or if the foe had the ability _sound proof_), it would fail to bring on confusion. It wasn't just accuracy but luck that decided whether this attack succeeded.

Luck was not with Naruto today.

The ninetales easily avoided the focus of the high-pitched sound and interrupted the attack with an intensely hot _flamethrower_. Once Sandy stopped projecting the sound, the ninetales unleashed a tooth-rattling _roar_. Since Naruto had left all his pokéballs in his room, Sandy couldn't return to him and hide, so she flew up and away, desperately fleeing the horrible sound.

"Damn it," Naruto cursed under his breath.

With Sandy out of the picture, the ninetales returned its full attention to Naruto. The one-eyed beast lunged for him, forcing Naruto to dive to the ground and roll out of the way. Madara's ninetales slid on the wet grass when it tried to turn too tightly and strike at him and stumbled, allowing Naruto a narrow escape to the back of the house and the lakeshore.

"Typhoon!" he shouted as he ran towards the water. "Typhoon!"

The flat surface of Lake End, marred only by the faintest ripples from the continuing drizzle, churned for a moment before the segmented sea serpent exploded into view with a thundering roar.

"Typhoon, _twister_!"

As the ninetales caught up and closed in on Naruto again, the scaly gyarados made a howling sound. A waterspout-like whirlwind swirled up and twisted towards the nine-tailed fox. Naruto managed to take shelter by his back porch, but the raging ninetales found no such protection. The white twister crashed into the fox and tore at it with punishing dragon power. When it dissipated, the ninetales looked thoroughly disheveled, but it was still standing.

"Now _aqua tail_!" Naruto commanded.

Typhoon raised his tail to kick up a wave, but the ninetales lashed out first. Madara's creature's eye flashed blue and the gyarados rocked from the invisible blows of _extrasensory_. The water monster blinked and shook off the attack, but he'd been so startled by the unseen attack that he flinched and failed to use _aqua tail_.

Swallowing a curse, Naruto tried a different attack. "Give it a _hydro pump_!"

Refocused on the battle at hand, the gyarados sucked in a deep breath and spewed a massive, high-pressure stream of water at the yellow fox. _Hydro pump_ was a devastatingly powerful attack, but it could be dodged; and for an experienced creature like the ninetales, it was easy to avoid. Madara's ninetales darted into a _quick attack_ and ricocheted off Typhoon, causing his _hydro pump_ to swing wildly before the attack ran out of steam.

_Aw man!_ Naruto mentally cursed. _I wish that mom didn't bring all of her monsters with her…_ "Don't give up! _Bite_ that fox!"

Snarling, Typhoon lunged in to chew on his foe. The ninetales retaliated by firing a ghostly _will-o-wisp_ right into the gyarados' mouth, burning the tender insides. Startled and in intense pain, Typhoon howled and dove under the surface of the lake to try and soothe the painful tongue burn.

Naruto found himself quite alone, cornered by his back porch. He shivered (even though he barely felt the chilly drizzle) as the ninetales turned its one angry eye back to him. Madara's fiery beast rushed in with teeth bared—

Shadow seemed to materialize out of thin air as the umbreon slammed into the ninetales' jaw with his _faint attack_. Before the ninetales could recover from the surprise blow, Demon took the larger fox's legs out with a _quick attack_. And then Bolt threw in his two cents with a shocking _thunderbolt_.

"Oh…thanks guys," Naruto sighed. _All this commotion out here must've woken them up._

The ninetales was not at all amused by their interference and barked something angry and threatening at them. An argument between the nine-tailed fox and Naruto's three monsters followed. It ended when the ninetales made a yapping call and all the vulpix, which so far had done nothing but watch after Sandy had fled, came rushing in to overwhelm Demon, Bolt, and Shadow.

"Hey, you jerk!" Naruto yelled at the ninetales and waved his fist. "That's not fair!"

This only drew the ninetales back to him. With each attempt to attack him, the gap between Naruto and the yellow fox had grown smaller, and now only a few feet separated him from the angry fox's jaws. Naruto tried to dodge it like he had the first time it had jumped him by the side of the house, but the ninetales managed to catch some of his shirt and used it to pin him to the wet ground.

"Hrk!" Naruto wheezed as the nine-tailed fox put its full weight on his back and dug its claws into his clothes and into the skin underneath. "Y're h'vy!"

Demon desperately tried to disentangle himself from the wild vulpix that held him back, as did Shadow. But only Bolt was able to break free by using _discharge_—an electrical explosion that could hit multiple targets in all directions at once. The pikachu moved in to use _slam_, but was blown away by a searing _flamethrower_.

"Get offa me!" Naruto hissed, struggling to get out from under the ninetales' paws…with no success.

Madara's ninetales leaned down and breathed an intensely hot breath on the back of his neck. It kneaded its claws into his back like a cat with a scratching post, bringing tears of pain to Naruto's eyes, but he refused to make a sound. As the fox tormented him while his vulpix, pikachu, and umbreon were helpless to intervene, Naruto spied his newly-acquired abra cowering between his house and one of his mom's berry bushes. Al had probably come out with the others to help but had panicked upon seeing the ninetales.

_Don't worry…_ Naruto forced his grimace of pain to look more like a smile. _It'll be okay, I promise._

Clenching his teeth, Naruto squirmed and managed to swing his arm enough to smack the rogue fox in the side of the head. All that did was piss the ninetales off more (if that was possible) and the yellow fox rolled him onto his back by clawing at him. Now sitting on his chest, the nine-tailed monster stared him down with its one remaining eye.

Naruto blinked and frowned as the air seemed to grow hazy and distorted around the monster's eye.

_It's using __**hypnosis**__?! I gotta…I gotta…_

_ (Sleep, human.)_

* * *

Al sniffled and wrung his spoon as he watched his new master drifted off into a forced sleep. He could feel the horrible monster's madness even in the safety of his hiding place. The madness was deep and dark and hot, thorny tentacles of it extending and curling around the many-tailed beast—so heavy and thick it was almost visible to Al's eyes. Any moment the abra expected the horrible monster to turn to him and bite and bite and bite—

_:Now, foolish little human,:_ the horrible monster snarled darkly. _:Now it is time for you to pay. No one can save you now…:_

_ :No!:_ Shadow wailed as he struggled under the weight of four vulpix as a fifth gnawed on his long ear. _:No, Naruto-kun, no!:_

_ :Stop it!:_ Bolt whimpered, squeaking in pain as a wild vulpix bit into his lightning bolt tail. _:Please, let Naruto-kun go!:_

_ :Let me go!:_ Demon snarled and thrashed against the trio of foxes that held him back. _:Let me go you brainless pawns! Scar-Face is only using you, you morons!:_

_ :Shut up, Ugly!:_ one of them barked. _:You're just a thieving spy!:_

_ :Yes, you will pay…:_ the horrible monster purred and bared his teeth. _:You will pay…with your life!:_

Al quivered and tears gathered at the corners of his eyes. When he slept (which was often) he dreamed of being brave and strong like his father the hitmonchan. But when he was awake, he felt so powerless, and with _teleport_ it was always so easy to just run away…

_:Now die!:_ the horrible, horrible monster hissed and leaned in to bite Naruto's throat.

The boy was going to die. The kind boy with the nice smile and the bright mind was going to get his throat ripped out. The horrible, wicked monster was going to kill him, and no one could stop him.

Clutching his spoon tightly in his left hand, Al fisted his right hand and ran the two yards from his bush to the horrible, horrible monster. In his haste, he slipped and slid on the wet grass, and nearly tripped over his own feet. And then Al punched the distracted fox monster in the nose, discharged a blast of electricity in the process.

_:Rah!:_ the horrible, many-tailed beast howled, lurching backwards and pawing at his shocked snout.

Al panted and trembled and stared down at his fist. _I…really did that? I punched like in my dreams?_

_:Yu wetch!:_ the monster snarled, its tongue hanging limply from the corner of its mouth. _:Joo dumbed my dongue!:_

_ :…He, what?:_ one of the wild vulpix wondered.

_:He numbed his tongue!:_ Demon laughed. _:Ha! Punch him again!:_

The abra's tail started to wag. _:…I can punch like my daddy!:_ He tightened his fist and waved it threateningly as a fresh electrical charge built up. _If I can punch like him, then I can be brave like him too!_

The nine-tailed monster bared its teeth…but the fearsome look was ruined by its paralyzed tongue. Its one eye flashed malevolently and its mad mind pressed on him, but Al resisted. He could be brave. He _had_ to be brave.

A rumble of thunder rolled through the leaden sky and the drizzle intensified into a steady rain.

Dark particles of energy started gathering into a darkly-glowing sphere in front of the one-eyed beast. Al trembled as every fiber of his being screamed that it was _dangerous _and had to be dodged at all costs. He wanted so terribly to _teleport_ away, but…

_If I move, it will hit Naruto—_

_ :Al, get out of the way!: _Demon barked from under a fox-pile. _:That's __**payback**__! You can't withstand it!:_

Al shivered and stepped back, tripping over Naruto's unconscious body. _But…but I can't leave him!_

The dark orb seemed to have finished growing—

A wave surged out from the lake, striking the horrible monster and disrupting the attack. As the water retreated back into the lake, Typhoon slithered up the shore and coiled his serpentine body around Al and Naruto. The gyarados' mouth was clamped firmly shut and tears of pain clung to the corners of his eyes, but he held firm in spite of the agony of his burned mouth.

Al sagged in relief, reassured by the powerful coils of the gyarados and the defense that they provided.

_Wow!_ He yawned._ …I'm sleepy._

* * *

Demon took advantage of the vulpix's distraction by Typhoon's dramatic reappearance and wriggled his way free. He darted up the gyarados' back and perched precariously on the sea serpent's head. Bolt and Shadow managed to free themselves from their vulpix captives as well and took shelter by Typhoon's _intimidating_ form. The mad ninetales, soaked and reeling, struggled to stand while the large pack of vulpix nervously watched, shivering in the rain.

_:Why did you come here, Scar-Face?:_ Demon demanded.

_:For vengeance!:_ the ninetales snarled, the numbness of his tongue gone.

_:Vengeance for what?:_ Shadow asked, baffled.

_:You spied on me! You stole from me!:_ the scarred ninetales barked with fury, his lone eye focused on Demon. _:You blinded me with your unique beauty and then you betrayed my trust! That boy dared to try and strike me! That boy denied me my right of doing justice upon you for your crimes! You and your human must pay!:_

Demon narrowed his eyes and glanced over at the audience of the vulpix. _:If this is all about vengeance, why are all of them here?:_

_ :They are here to learn,:_ the ninetales hissed.

_:Really?:_ Demon snorted. _:I thought that you brought them as back-up for when we started kicking your tails.:_

_ :You golden wretch!:_ the scarred fox howled. _:I don't need any help in destroying you!:_

_:That's not what it looks like to me,:_ Demon shot back. _:You're all washed up.:_

_:__**You**__—:_

A pale yellow blur slammed broadside into the ninetales, nearly knocking the mad creature on its back.

_:Madara, stand down and submit,:_ Kyuubi barked.

The vulpix milled about in shock.

_:Another ninetales!:_

_ :There is another?!:_

_ :Why are they at odds?:_

_ :Who is "Madara"?:_

Sandy glided over to hover near Demon on Typhoon's head. _:I'm sorry that I flew away,:_ she apologized. _:But look, I brought help!:_

The scarred ninetales snarled and bristled at Kyuubi. _:Who are you?! How do you know my name?!:_

_ :I am Kyuubi,:_ the female fox answered. _:And although we have never met, I have learned a great deal about you. You are Madara, a ninetales who has served under Madara Uchiha, Susano Uchiha, and Shisui Uchiha. And now you are causing trouble and it must stop.:_

_ :No…:_ Madara growled. _:No, no I will not stop! I will not stop until my masters come and stop me themselves! I will not stop until I get my vengeance against them!:_

_ :How can your masters come and stop you?:_ Kyuubi wondered. _:They are all dead.:_

There was a full minute of silence, where only the sound of the falling rain could be heard.

_:…They are not dead!:_ Madara barked. _:They left me because I failed them! But I will make them come back…:_

_ :They can't,:_ Kyuubi replied. _:They are dead. Madara died of madness and old age. Susano died of illness. Shisui drowned. You will never see them again.:_

_ :You lie!:_ Madara shrieked. _:I have not seen them dead, so they are not dead! They left me!:_ he howled in distress. _:Master Madara—he promised me that we would capture the lords of fire together and become gods. He promised me!:_

_ :He cannot keep this promise,:_ Kyuubi said calmly. _:He is dead.:_

_ :Liar!:_

Madara charged forward, intent on tearing Kyuubi apart with his teeth—

_:Oh no you don't!:_

Crusher the feraligatr stormed through the rain, caught Madara by a few of his tails, and swung him off towards the lake. The ninetales landed just short of the water and in short order was surrounded by Tsunami the gyarados, Uzu-chan the vaporeon, Slasher the kabutops, Hoshi the starmie, and Hikari the lanturn. Madara lay in the mud, his one eye rolling around frantically in search of an escape route, but found none.

"Hikari, _thunder wave_!"

The electric fish immediately fired off a paralyzing blast of electricity that left the scar-faced fox immobile. The ragged ring of vulpix parted as two mighty arcanine trotted onto the scene. One carried Pixy's trainer, the other carried Naruto's mother.

The red-haired woman looked angry. As soon as the fire dog stopped, she slid off its back and marched into the circle her water pokémon had made to confront the one-eyed ninetales. She stood right in front of it and took a moment to glare.

"You are in so much trouble," she growled. "You've encouraged bad behavior in innocent wild vulpix, you've tried to kill some of my son's monsters, and now you've come to my home and gone after my boy!" She slapped the ninetales on the nose, making him yelp. "Bad fox!"

_:Can I hit him next?:_ Crusher asked hopefully, his scaly crocodile tail wriggling with excitement.

Naruto's mother removed the intricately decorated black-and-silver pokéball and aimed it at the rogue ninetales. "Now it's time for you to go back to the Uchiha."

The red laser locked onto the paralyzed fox and changed it into a mass of red energy that could be sucked into the sphere. As soon as the ball closed with the creature inside, the woman pressed the button to shrink it so that the ninetales couldn't come right back out. With the one-eyed fox captured and secured, the red-haired woman shoved the ball into her pocket, made a show of dusting off her hands, and marched over to Kyuubi.

"Send these vulpix home so that we can get out of this rain," she said, and then turned around and scanned over the scuffed-up part of her lawn where the fight had taken place. "Naruto, where are you?"

Typhoon uncurled as Demon slid down his back, revealing Naruto. The boy was still out cold from the _hypnosis_. And…Al the abra was sleeping too.

The red-haired woman sighed and marched over to the sleeping boy, knelt down, and poked, prodded, and pinched him until he woke up.

"Mmm…Mom?" the boy mumbled, blinking sleepily. "When did you get here? Where's the—what did I miss?!"

She just chuckled at him.


	10. Part X

**Freaky Foxes**

_Part X_

Minato only really relaxed when he was on Ryuu's back and in the air. When he got the chance, he would inform Genma not to sign him up for any future fishing competitions, even if they were for charity. It was just too much of a pain.

He'd never been good at fishing, and since he hadn't practiced his mediocre skills since Kushina had split, he'd been especially terrible. Every other participant, even Yukie Fujikaze, had done better than him. Minato's only consolation was that the event hadn't been televised, and the spectators had been minimal where he'd chosen to fish on the lake.

As the event had been held at a freshwater lake, the possible monsters to catch was somewhat limited. There were goldeen, seaking, buizel, barboach, whiscash, poliwag, poliwhirl, wooper, psyduck, marill, slowpoke, lotad, and magikarp known to live in the area. However, no matter where he aimed his rod, all he hooked were magikarp.

_She's going to laugh at me,_ he sighed, fingering the minimized blue-painted pokéball in his pocket. _But at least I won't be late. I should get there just in time…_

After the competition ended Wednesday evening, he'd been ready to head out to Konoha Town, but he'd somehow gotten sucked into a dinner with some of his fellow competitors. There was lots of food and drink and laughing at his expense more than anyone else's, and it was just too late for him to be flying out by the time he could get away. So first thing Thursday morning, before the sun had even come up, he'd gone.

_If the weather stays good, we should get there around noon…_

But, after an hour or so of flying, the horizon ahead of them started to get darker and more ominous. The clouds grew thicker and a headwind kicked up. And then there were the few odd flickers of lightning jumping from cloud to cloud.

_Aw, crap._

* * *

Naruto poked his fork at the few remaining crumbs of cake and bits of cake frosting on his plate as he sat in the rather crowded living room, lost in thought. Today was Thursday, October tenth, his twelfth birthday. And it had been raining all day long.

That hadn't stopped people from coming over, though. Iruka had come; the professor had stopped by and brought Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon along with him; and Kotetsu, Izumo, and Hana had appeared, probably more for the promise of cake than anything else. That thoroughly packed his small house, and made for an interesting party. But…

_He didn't come._ Naruto glanced over his shoulder at the window and out at the dreary weather. _Stupid rain. It was so nice yesterday…_

Wednesday it hadn't rained a drop, it had just looked gloomy. He'd gone with his mother to deliver the ninetales to Sasuke's father that afternoon. The elder Uchiha had accepted the pokéball without any discernible emotion, made a remark (that sounded an awful lot like a complaint) about making donations to all the businesses attacked by the vulpix, and then shown them out. And that had been the end of that.

_"Hey, Mom, what do you think will happen to it?"_

_ "It's hard to say. Maybe they'll give it to Itachi. Maybe they'll end up putting it to sleep. We'll probably never know…because that ninetales embarrassed them and they're all such a secretive, snobby bunch…"_

Naruto frowned as he recalled that conversation. As crazy and mean as that ninetales was, it didn't seem quite right to kill it. It wasn't the pokémon's fault that it was crazy.

_I hope Itachi gets it…even though he is kinda creepy—_

"Hey, you okay over there?" his mother whispered to him. "You've been frowning at your plate for five minutes."

"I was just thinking," he whispered back.

"Well stop it," she snorted and poked his shoulder. "It looks like it's making you mad, and you shouldn't be mad on your birthday."

Naruto rubbed at the back of his head and grinned weakly. "Okay…?"

She glanced out the window and pouted. "Darn weather. If it would've cooperated for your birthday, we could all hang out outside."

It would've been a lot better if he could've had his party outdoors. It wasn't just that there were a lot of people, but everyone had brought their pokémon and it was hard to fit so many bodies inside the house. Naruto thought it was a miracle that a fight hadn't broken out between rival monsters, like Demon and Vixen.

_It's a good thing Mom made all those poffin cupcakes yesterday…_

When the cake (vanilla with chocolate frosting, just like he'd requested) had been brought out, everyone had settled down in the living room to watch a specialty tournament on the television. But unfortunately the tournament (of fire pokémon only) had been canceled because it was raining there, too, and the arena was an outdoor one. So Konohamaru and his friends channel-surfed while the adults chatted amongst themselves and Naruto shifted his attention between the two groups.

"Well, it looks like everyone's done with their cake," his mother said, gaining everyone's attention. "So, Naruto, is it time for presents?"

"Sure," he agreed.

In short order, several present were produced for him to open. There was a clumsily wrapped box with lots of extra ribbon tapped on it from Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon; a box covered in plain brown paper from Izumo and Kotetsu; a package with red paper from the professor; a gift wrapped in leaf-patterned paper from Iruka; a gift bag with canine pokémon on it from Hana; and a large box from his mother that he suspected contained clothes. And then his Mom handed him a thick envelope that had already been opened.

"That came in the mail for you just before you arrived home."

Naruto frowned at the envelope, baffled. It was addressed to his mom, but she said it was for him? Perhaps…it was from his father?

Inside, he found a letter and a birthday card. The letter was written by Hinata in neat calligraphy and very politely and apologetically requested that the enclosed card be sent to him. The birthday card contained a few restaurant coupons and well-wishes from Hinata, as well as Shino and Kiba (and Akamaru, apparently).

"Aw, how nice of them!" his mother cooed as she peered over his shoulder.

"Yeah…" Naruto agreed, setting the letter and card aside. _But you already knew what was in here, you opened the envelope first!_

"Open ours next!" Konohamaru demanded, shoving the crazily-wrapped box at him.

"You guys really didn't have to get me anything," Naruto said as he dropped all the excess bits of ribbon on the carpet where Bolt pounced on it and played with it like a cat would with bits of yarn.

"But it's your birthday!" Moegi protested.

"Yeah!" Udon nodded.

"You're twelve now, Boss," Konohamaru grinned. "You're old now so we just had to get you something!"

Naruto rolled his eyes and pried open the heavily-taped box. Inside he found a pokéball, a potion, and a repel—cheap, basic supplies. They'd probably had to pool together their little allowances to afford it.

He flashed the three younger kids a thumb's up. "Hey thanks, I can really use this stuff."

Then he went through the rest of his gifts one by one. Izumo and Kotetsu had each gotten him a great-ball, replacing the two that he'd lost in trying to capture Madara's ninetales in his first encounter with the beast. Hana gave him a premier-ball (a freebie normally obtained when buying ten or more pokéballs) and a pair of heal-balls. Iruka had really splurged; he gave Naruto a dive-ball _and_ a net-ball. Professor Sarutobi gifted him a handful of nest-balls and an autographed and framed photo of the old man in his younger days as champion. And, as he'd suspected, his Mom gave him clothes; it was a jacket a lot like the white one he'd gotten from his father, except this one was blue with two orange stripes running up the sleeves.

And then he was out of presents. There were no other letters or packages that had come through the mail for him. His father hadn't come, or sent him a thing.

_Mom did say something about him and a "fishing thing" before,_ the boy mused as he helped stuff the torn wrapping paper in the trash. _Maybe…he doesn't even know that it's today…_

With the excitement of present-opening over, Konohamaru and his friends had gone back to the television and apparently they'd found something they wanted to watch.

"Hey, it's _Scream of the Ghost Pokémon 5_!" Konohamaru grinned. "Hey Grandpa, can we stay and watch it!"

"If Miss Uzumaki says it's alright, I don't see why not," the old man chuckled.

"Sure," the red-haired woman smiled. "It'll keep you out of the rain for a little while longer."

Naruto started to sweat. _…"Scream of the Ghost Pokémon 5"?_

* * *

Demon lounged on a decorative pillow that had been knocked to the floor in the darkened living room. All the humans were either sitting on the couch or on the floor in front of the television set, intently watching whatever was on the screen. Naruto didn't look happy, flinching and cringing far more than the rest.

Most of the guest pokémon had grown bored after gorging themselves on the poffin cupcakes and had retreated into their spheres, but a few were still loose. Pixy was sitting in her human's lap, watching whatever they were watching. Dusk and Eclipse were napping together in a tangle under the coffee table. Vixen was hiding under the couch while Growler repeatedly tried to coax her out. And Kyuubi lay near the front door, watching it intently like she had pretty much all day.

As for the rest of Naruto's pokémon, most of them were still active. Shadow, Bolt, and Sandy were in a three-way tug-of-war with a tangle of ribbons that had come off one of the gifts. Typhoon was probably still playing outside in the rain with the other water pokémon. And Al was passed out in the kitchen, having fallen asleep sometime after being informed by Kyuubi that his "spoon" was actually a "spork".

_:I don't understand your attitude,:_ Growler the growlithe complained to the vulpix hiding under the couch. _:Aren't you excited to be partnered with me? Together we shall help uphold the law and dispense justice!:_

_ :Go away,:_ Vixen grumbled. _:I don't care.:_

_ :But-but what we will do is important!:_ Growler protested. _:Please come out…:_

_ :No!:_

Demon rolled his eyes and abandoned his comfy pillow to approach the female ninetales. Kyuubi had said very little ever since Madara had been captured. After informing the wild vulpix that "Guardian" was a very disturbed creature and that they should forget anything that he told them and go home and go back to the way they'd been living before, she had waited within sight of the door and never explained why.

_:Alright, what are you waiting for?:_ Demon asked when he reached her side.

_:I am waiting for Minato-kun,:_ she replied. _:With Madara back in human hands, my purpose for being here is finished. He will be here soon to collect me.:_

_ :It's getting late, and it's raining…do you really think he'll arrive today?:_ Demon wondered.

_:He will be here soon,:_ Kyuubi insisted. _:Minato-kun was very specific on how long it would be until he could come and join me.:_

Demon shook himself and turned to return to his pillow. _:If you say so…:_

Whatever was on the TV (Demon just didn't understand it—there was a lot of screaming and running and clearly fake blood and ghost pokémon popping out of unexpected places, like solid walls) seemed to have grown tense as all the humans were leaning forward in anticipation. And then there was a knocking on the front door. All the humans jumped…and Naruto freaked out.

"It's the cursed gengar!" the boy hissed frantically. "Don't open the door, Mom!"

"Naruto, let go of my arm," she sighed. "I need to see who's there."

"Get lost in the movie much?" Pixy's trainer snorted. "The cursed gengar isn't real. And besides, the cursed dusknoir from _Scream of the Ghost Pokémon 6_ is way scarier. He kills the cursed gengar right at the start and takes over the cursed ghost army."

"Eep!"

"Thank you for that, Hana," the red-haired woman grumbled.

There was some more knocking on the door.

"Seriously, Naruto, let go of my arm!"

After a brief struggle, she got free, got to the front door, and cracked it open to peer out into the rain.

"…You're soaked," she said to whoever was outside. "Go to the backdoor and I'll get you some towels."

Closing the door, she went off elsewhere in the house to get the towels.

Intrigued, Demon trotted into the kitchen where the backdoor was located. Al was still sleeping in there, curled up on one of the wooden chairs. When the mystery guest knocked on the backdoor Al jumped to his feet and pointed his white spork at the door.

_:There is someone there!:_

_ :Yeah, I know,: _Demon replied. _:Are you over the spoon-spork thing yet?:_

Al paused, started down at his white plastic utensil, and then buried his head in his hands. _:No! I grabbed the wrong thing! I wanted to get a spoon like Mommy's!:_

_ :…I guess not.:_

Naruto's mother entered the kitchen with a pile of towels and opened the door. On the other side was Naruto's father, completely soaked. He smiled weakly around chattering teeth.

"I can come inside now?"

"Yep." She threw a towel at his head. "Do hurry up."

She peeled his coat off and attacked him with towels. While she did this, he fumbled with his shoes and then with his bag. Demon watched the two of them struggle with amusement. Al slipped off the table and poked Demon's shoulder.

_:Who is that?:_

_ :That is Whisker Face's father,:_ Demon replied.

The man managed to removed a blue present from his bag, release his raichu, and give her the gift.

_:We're here!:_ Kiroi squeaked, taking the present in her paws. _:And…Minato-kun you're all wet.:_

"Deliver that for me, would you?"

_:Okay!:_ Wriggling her long tail, Kiroi carefully carried the box into the dark living room. _:Naruto, Naruto, I've got a present for you!:_

Al scampered up to the dripping man and waved. _:Hi Naruto's daddy!:_

Demon slipped out of the kitchen to follow Kiroi.

_Maybe I'll get this wrapping paper all to myself…_

* * *

Naruto fidgeted with the cuff of his new jacket as he tried not to flinch too much whenever a ghost popped out in the movie, which was a lot as the movie was almost over and the finale was fast approaching. He hated horror movies with ghost pokémon in them, but he didn't want to refuse and send all his guests home while it was still raining so hard. So he hunkered down between his mother (when she left, he was next to Iruka) and the old man on the couch and watched it with them.

_I hate ghost movies,_ he pouted. _Now everybody thinks I'm a big baby… And who was at the door?_

There were a few skittering footsteps, and then a raichu holding a present popped up in front of him.

"Huh?!"

"A raichu?" Iruka murmured and reached over to turn on a lamp. "It's got a present for you, Naruto?"

That got everyone's attention, especially Konohamaru and friends.

"Another present?!" Moegi squealed.

"Open it! Open it!" Konohamaru and Udon cheered.

Naruto took the blue package from the raichu and examined it for tags, but found none. Kyuubi, who had sat apart for most of the day, got up and walked over to the raichu. After they spoke, the ninetales hurried off to the kitchen. That made Naruto pause and think.

_Somebody comes to the door… A raichu shows up with a present… Kyuubi knows the raichu and the "somebody"…_

He started to get up to go and see if his guess was right—

"Open it," Kotetsu yawned. "The suspense is killing us."

Naruto hesitated a moment longer before tearing into the blue paper and casting it aside. Underneath was a plain cardboard box, like most of the other gifts. Inside it, he found a black-and-green dusk-ball, a black-red-and-metallic luxury-ball, and…something else.

"A _flash_ HM," the professor said when he saw it. "Most regions don't classify it as an HM-worthy ability so it's hard to find, even as a second-hand item."

"Nice," Izumo remarked with a nod.

Demon stole the discarded wrapping paper before any other pokémon could reach it and then amused himself with the sounds it made when he stepped on it and tore at it with his teeth.

"I wonder who could get their hands on an item like this," Iruka mused as he studied the rare device.

_"A magikarp?!"_ his mother cried from the kitchen, before exploding into laughter. _"Oh, let me see, let me see!"_ There was a pause, and then more laughter. _"Ah, it's the cutest little magikarp I've ever seen!"_

Unable to resist his curiosity any longer, Naruto left his latest present on the coffee table and picked his way through his guests to scamper off to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, he found his mother cuddling a small magikarp, which was a good foot shorter in length than the average and a pale orange in color instead of the dark red-orange that he expected. Kyuubi paced anxiously between his mom and the other person, as if trying to separate them and persuade his mother to leave. And the other person, who was thoroughly soaked from long exposure to the rain, was…his dad.

"Yes, I'm sure it is," the man sighed and shivered. "Can I have him back now?"

"No," she grinned. "I'm not done getting to know him yet. What did you name him?"

"I haven't settled on a name yet."

"Oh, well how about—"

Naruto interrupted then, and hugged his dad, not caring that it was like hugging a pile of laundry that had just come out of the washing machine.

_This is the best birthday ever!_


End file.
